FESCO relaunches debt recovery campaign

Distribution company seeks to recover arrears of Rs136.9 million.

FAISALABAD:

Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco) has reinvigorated its campaign to recover Rs136.9 million from 906 permanent defaulters, said Fesco CEO Engineer Iftikhar Ahmed. Addressing a press conference at the distribution company’s headquarters on Friday, he said that 477 of the 906 defaulters are domestic consumers, owing Rs.38.7 million to the company.

Similarly, 57 commercial defaulters have an outstanding liability of Rs5.915 million, 131 industrial defaulters have to pay Rs.61.2 million, 242 agriculture connections owe Rs30 million and two residential colonies have failed to pay of Rs0.759 million while one temporary connection has Rs0.361 million in arrears.

He said that connections of the debtors have been disengaged. Fesco has decided to disconnect all domestic, industrial, commercial and agriculture connections in use by the defaulters.  Ahmed said that teams have been constituted to ensure recoveries. The facility of paying in instalments was also restarted by the company, he added.

Moreover, Ahmed said that Fesco was adopting a ‘carrot and stick’ policy. The employees achieving high recovery rates will be appreciated with rewards while lethargic and incompetent employees will be punished.

Responding to a question, he said that government’s defaults have negligible outstanding dues hence; there was no need to initiate a campaign against them.

He said that the details of the defaulters have been uploaded on Fesco’s website while the list has been provided to the media.

The chief made a humble appeal to the public to inform Fesco if they found a defaulter stealing or getting electricity from another consumer.
He warned that any consumer renting electricity to the defaulters will also be treated alike.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th, 2012.