NEPRA chief slams govt, RPPs over contract violations

Parliamentary panel seeks report on water theft by December 16.

ISLAMABAD:

The parliamentary panel on the rental power projects was informed on Monday that both government authorities and rental power companies were allegedly involved in violation of contracts leading to a delay in the timely completion of the projects.

The ministry of water and power also came under fire over imposition of fuel adjustment surcharge that had exceeded the actual bill amount.

While briefing the National Assembly standing committee on water and power chaired by Ghulam Mustafa on Monday, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) Chairman Khalid Saeed said: “Had the rental power projects become operational in the stipulated time of six months, there would have been no such controversy.”

Meanwhile, the panel sought a report on the water theft between Tarbela and Chashma Barrage by December 16. According to some reports, 200,000 cusecs water had been stolen from the dams. But water and power secretary Imtiaz Qazir, termed the report on water theft ‘incorrect’.

Line losses

Nepra’s chief said that the country was currently facing the issue of high power line losses. “The line losses of some power distribution companies are up to 35 per cent due to multiple reasons, but electricity theft and non-payments by consumers are two major problems,” he said.

He maintained that at present the line losses of the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco), Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), Gujranwala Electric Supply Company (Gepco) and Multan Electric Supply Company (Mepco) were up to 10 per cent while Nepra had allowed 16 per cent.

Nepra Chairman Saeed added that line losses in the system of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) and Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) were up to 35 per cent. The panel was informed that the power distribution companies were suffering huge line losses due to the involvement of staff in power theft.

Non-payment of bills

It was further revealed that the government had to pay a penalty of Rs25 billion since it failed to pay to the Independent Power Plants (IPPs) in a timely fashion.

Secretary Qazi, while briefing the committee members, said that the relevant authorities had disconnected electricity meters of over 0.5 million consumers due to non-payments so far.

He added that the ministry had directed relevant authorities to disconnect meters of all those public departments/organisations which did not make timely payments.

The members of the committee – while expressing grave concern over the fuel adjustment surcharges – said that without being provided with power, consumers were being asked to pay huge electricity bills.

Nepra’s chairman said that during the summer peak time, the government was forced to make all the IPPs operational, most of which used furnace oil and diesel as fuel — the most expensive means of power generation. However, he said that fuel adjustment charges were for the month of June-July only.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2011.