Power companies directed to recover Rs40b dues

Unscheduled outages stopped after improvement in production: Qamar.

ISLAMABAD:

Federal Water and Power Minister Naveed Qamar has asked chief executive officers (CEOs) of power distribution companies to meet the recovery target of Rs40 billion for January.

He said this while presiding over a meeting of CEOs of power distribution companies here on Tuesday to review the recovery of current and outstanding dues.

Qamar said maximum realisation of the outstanding amount would help the companies pay oil suppliers on time and avoid a drop in power generation due to slowdown in fuel supply.

He asked the CEOs to involve the district administration to maximize recovery from defaulters and said companies should announce special incentives for their staff to encourage them to recover dues to meet the target.

At the same time, the power companies were also asked to improve their performance and reduce line losses.

In a separate meeting, the minister said unscheduled load-shedding had been stopped both for industrial and domestic consumers following improvement in power generation.

He said the closure of canals for maintenance had widened the gap between demand and supply of electricity, but the situation was being managed with the help of maximum production from thermal plants.

Qamar directed the CEO of Gujranwala Electric Supply Company to visit the Sialkot Chamber and finalise a load management plan with the industrialists. He also asked the chamber to identify the feeders mainly used by the industry so that proper arrangements could be made to provide uninterrupted power supply.

Earlier, Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Naeem Anwar Qureshi raised the issue of power shortages for the export-focused Sialkot industry. He asked the minister to resolve the problem on a priority basis, which would enable the industry to meet export orders on time.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2012.