Free electricity?: Balochistan tops power theft list followed by Sindh
The report maintains that power pilferage caused an Rs100 billion loss to the national exchequer in 2011-12, with Balochistan accounting for a mammoth 63.8% of the losses. Furthermore, it states that Punjab – which has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction for bearing the brunt of load shedding – has the best recovery ratio.
Sindh follows Balochistan in power theft with its recovery ratio as low as 30 to 50% during the last fiscal year. The Sukkur Electric Supply Company is a major casualty in the province with its recovery ratio at 50.9% against the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company’s 69.1%.
Sindh is also the biggest defaulter of payments. The province owes over Rs50 billion in power bills.
Khyber-Pakthunkhwa (K-P) follows suit in power theft with a recovery ratio of 17.5%. The ratio, however, has been improved by a relatively more efficient Peshawar Electric Supply Company during the last fiscal year.
Punjab’s performance with regard to recovery of payments from consumers is stunning. Its power distribution companies maintained a recovery ratio of 95.8 to 98.5% in 2011-2012.
The province’s two major distribution companies — Gujranwala Electric Supply Company and Faisalabad Electric Supply Company — reported a recovery rate of 98.5% while the Multan Electric Supply Company, Lahore Electric Supply Company and Islamabad Electric Supply Company registered recovery rates of 97.2%, 96.1% and 95.8%, respectively.
Power theft poses a serious threat to the country’s power distribution system. The ongoing energy crisis is also a major bone of contention between the ruling party and other political parties and has been deliberated upon in different forums such as the Council of Common Interests and Public Accounts Committee meetings.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 13th, 2012.
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Providing Gas in whole Baluchistan is commercially not viable as its not possible to lay down highly expensive distribution network & pipelines (in trillions) to very scattered consumers (populaton) cities and town. SNGPL is far a head profitable only as it provides Gas to the most congested consumer (population) groups mostly in central and northern-punjab as that why its in some how in megar profits.
Federal minister for WAPDA announced few days ago that police stations shall be opened for electricity thieves then by showing electricity stealing trend in Sindh and Balochistan these police stations now have to be opened firstly in Sindh and Balochistan and later in Punjab and KPK.By seeing all this electricity stealing condition Punjab and KPK have full rights to steal electricity...... Why Punjab is bearing more than 50% burden/expenditures of WAPDA despite other provinces are stealing electricity openly and proudly?????
@john: Sindh produces 70% of the gas being used in country
@john: They can't steal it unless they have access.
ET should mention that our Foreign Minister factory that is defaulting almost 7 crores of electricity bills. On "negotiation" they have agreed to repay bill in "easy" installments of Rs 3,000 per month. At this rate it will take 1944 YEARS, yes, YEARS, to repay it. If that is not stealing electricity then I don't know what is. So was this counted in the "recovery" percentage after all it is being paid back ?
No wonder Hina Rabbani can afford $25000 handbags when the rest of the country does not even have 2 full meals a day.
This report can't be trusted as its prepared by incompetent officials of WAPDA who want to hide their failures by transferring bale to public. Some comments made by some ignorant and Biased people here are also saddening and depressing. Baloch people and their provinces has been suffering from 65 years and So easily all the bale is transferred to them based on such suspicious report.
@ Vigilant Citizen First of all its completely wrong that Punjab is suffering more in electricity crisis. Punjab is having long hours of load shedding because of its demand which form about ^5% of total demand. In Balochistan total requirement is 1230 MW which is equal to that of Multan region of Punjab only! Despite so less demand still there is more load shedding in Balochistan than Punjab. In rural areas Only 2 to 4 hours electricity is provided daily and in cities excluding quetta up to 6 hours. So all those who are crying on Punjab's sacrifices are completely ignorant of the facts. You have written that Balochistan receives huge royalty for Gas? Again this depict your complete disregards to the facts. Balochistan receives 25 Rupees for certain unit of Gas for which Sindh and Punjab receive 150 Rupees. The accumulated royalty of Balochistan is still due on Federal Government and every year a petty amount is paid Under NFC. So brother facts are really disturbing and I advise all people to enlighten themselves about Balochistan before making any senseless comments..
@Vigilant Citizen:
how many people are living in balochistan and how many people live in punjab, its time to accept that if punjab is 60% of pakistan then it also eats pakistani resources in the same way, balochistan in hardly 10% of the population, electricity theft is every where, from punjab to every other province the report is bogus
This is a conspiracy against flipping democracy.
It is funny how Baochis identify themselves as victims of Punjabi hegemony over resources. Fact of the matter, as rightly stated by the author of this article and sung by Geddy Lee, is that how can one expect to get 'something for nothing' and then whine about it? Punjab bears the brunt of power outage despite such a high recovery rate simply because people in other provinces, mainly Balochistan, choose to steal or not pay for their utilities. And instead of regulating this as it should be, the government, to counter the political unrest in Balochistan, dish out practically free electricity to appease the sentiments of its landlords and politicians. Ever wonder why electricity in Pakistan is so expensive? As for gas, Balochistan gets a huge royalty for the gas it provides however, it does not trickle down to the regular Baloch. Instead of using this money to develop infrastructure, it gets consumed amongst the big fish at the top of the food chain leaving the middle and lower class populace having to resort to stealing utilities. The gas itself comes at an immense cost since a huge chunk of money is spent on providing security to exploration and drilling companies which are reluctant to enter the region. Bottom line, however, is that I, and Punjabis as a whole, are having to bare somebody else's expense for these utilities and we do not appreciate it.
Why are people defending the accused! Start getting cash back from them!
Good! Its about time we develop strength to talk about truths without Sindh (or any other province) Cards being played.
and thats why we are always complaining in Punjab! WE pay the bills, other provinces enjoy free electricity... n we have to bear the brunt of load shedding!
Gas jaha se bhi nikle, its no excuse to not to pay bill as provinces get their royalty and most of electricity is produced from other means and not gas! time that we see some equality by Sindh dominated PPP
well with 14-16 hours of daily loading shedding in Punjab the recovery rate will be as good as 96% obviously
How can someone not pay their electricity bill? Pathetic people.
@Mahmood: its hard to imagine if you are not from Punjab but if you are then you have to PAY for electricity
I think the only reason they can steal it it because they have access to it....I don't think its possible to steal electricity through air....Its more a matter of illegal connections and not paying bills.....if you think about it, we are giving the Baloch something for free....
It is just another third degree of report from Tribune. where is the recovery report from KESC and LESC?
Jhon
The Gas theft case is not different than this electricity. Among the 30% Baloch, very much less number people pay the bills of gas, and similarly Punjab pay more for gas too.
That what make the difference. Govt like to spend more time & money on those project which pay them back too.
An 'official report' ? Just how independently was this report written? It's just very hard to believe that Punjab (or any part of Pakistan for that matter) would have recovery rates like 96%+
Just maybe if you gave them access to electricity, the Balochs wouldn't have to steal it?? Balochs have all the gas, but it all goes to Punjab and the Sindh... Less than 30% Balochs have access to gas, same with electricity, running water, sanitation... And let's not even get started on security and justice
Pakistan's treatment of minorities is an absolute disgrace...