Centre, provinces owe Rs2.56 trillion to DISCOs

Federal, provincial governments have unpaid electricity bills across all power utilities

ISLAMABAD:

The federal and provincial governments collectively owe more than Rs2.56 trillion in unpaid bills to the electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) across the country, official documents available with The Express Tribune revealed on Wednesday.

There are 12 DISCOs across the country – Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco); Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco); Hazara Electric Supply Company (Hazeco); Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco); Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco); K-Electric; Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco); Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco); Peshawar Electric Power Company (Pesco); Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco); Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco), and Tribal Electric Supply Company (Tesco).

According to the documents, the federal government owed Rs47.81 billion while the provincial governments owed Rs1.51 trillion. Furthermore, the subordinate institutions of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir government have outstanding payments of Rs56.77 billion to these power utilities.

The document details the federal government’s debts as follows: Rs6.67 billion to Lesco, Rs2.82 billion to Gepco, Rs1.72 billion to Fesco, Rs14.13 billion to Iesco, Rs2.18 billion to Mepco, Rs2.22 billion to Pesco, Rs5.53 billon to Hesco, Rs9.13 billion to Sepco, Rs 2.40 billion to Qesco, and Rs960 million to Tesco.

Similarly, the Punjab government had unpaid bills to the tune of Rs33.05 billion, which were due to the distribution companies of Lahore, Multan, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Islamabad regions. The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government owes Rs26.25 billion to Pesco and Tesco.

Moreover, according to the document, the Sindh government owes more than Rs54 billion to the Hyderabad and Sukkur electric supply companies, while the government of Balochistan was supposed to make payment of Rs38.29 billion to Qesco on account of its unpaid electricity bills.