Ministry spends billions on free power for staff

Documents reveal over 200,000 energy ministry employees received 441.5 million free electricity units.

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ISLAMABAD:

The energy ministry spent billions of rupees annually on providing free electricity to its public and corporate employees, according to the official documents presented in the National Assembly on Thursday.

The documents revealed that more than 200,000 current and former employees of the ministry were getting 441.5 million units of electricity free of charge.

The documents showed that 308.2 million units were provided to serving employees while 133.2 million units to retired employees every year.

According to the documents, most of the beneficiaries belonged to the Distribution Companies (DISCOs). Its 149,000 employees – 78,000 serving and 71,800 retired – get free electricity, followed by 20,000 serving and 6,000 retired employees of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC).

Other beneficiaries include 7,315 serving and 5,381 retired employees of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and 159 employees of the Power Information Technology Company (PITC), the documents showed.