Sukkur traders to go on strike against SEPCO

Traders threaten to go on strike as they are fed up with overcharged bills sent by the Sukkur Electric Power Company.

SUKKUR: Traders in Sukkur have threatened to go on strike today (Sunday) as they are fed up with the overcharged bills sent by the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco).

“We have decided not to pay electricity bills that have overread the charges,” said Cloth Merchants Association, Sukkur, general-secretary Haji Muhammad Umer. “Enough is enough, we have been braving the atrocities of Sepco officers for a long time.”

All shopkeepers in their market have been charged at least 300 to 1,500 additional units, Cloth Merchants Association, Sukkur, senior vice-president Hafeezullah Memon told The Express Tribune.

Memon added that even a small shop, with a small ceiling fan and two bulbs, has had an electricity bill of more than Rs15,000. “We have complained to Sepco officers about the attitude of their staff,” he said.

The officers are corrupt and negligent as the meter readers only come once every three to four months and then send the bills without proper reading, he accused.

Earlier, the electricity bills would arrive at least a week before the due date but now they are issued only 24 hours before, Memon said, adding that the consumers are forced to either pay the bill on short notice or bear the late payment surcharge.

Since the markets in Sukkur usually close on Friday, the shopkeepers will pull down their shutters in protest on Sunday as they stage a demonstration and burn electricity bills. Umer explained that they are annoyed with the power company because “whenever we go to the Sepco officers to complain about over-reading, they simply advise us to pay the bill, promising that it will be fixed the next month”.

In the first phase of their protest, the traders’ association has displayed placards in the market, condemning the overcharged bills, Umer said, adding that all shopkeepers in the market are currently depositing their electricity bills with their president.

Sepco sub-divisional officer for sub division II, Sukkur, Rukhsar Qureshi, told The Express Tribune that he was unaware of the call for a strike by the cloth merchants. He said that he has a meeting scheduled with the Cloth Merchants Association on Monday.

The bills of those shopkeepers who complain of overcharging are corrected after verification from their meters, he said, assuring that he will look into the complaints at the meeting and try to address their problems.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2010.