Bleeding dry: Power theft eats up Rs40 billion every year

Ministry asked to take steps to recover unpaid bills.

ISLAMABAD:

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has disclosed that electricity worth Rs40 billion is stolen every year because of prevalent malpractices in power distribution companies.

Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power here on Tuesday, chaired by Senator Zahid Khan, Acting Nepra Chairman Khawaja Naeem said power theft was a major factor paralysing the entire energy chain.

He pointed out that power distribution companies failed to recover Rs70 billion in electricity bills every year, whereas the government had been spending Rs394 billion in power subsidies annually.

According to Naeem, the mark-up of power firms had swelled to Rs45 billion, while a hefty amount of Rs80 billion had become stuck on account of court orders.

“This is a major reason behind the circular debt, as total revenue requirement of the power sector was Rs988 billion,” he said, arguing that the Ministry of Water and Power had never bothered to call Nepra to seek its input in this connection.

The Senate body was also told that Rs549 billion of power distribution companies had been stuck on different accounts.

Panel members asked the water and power ministry to meet Nepra officials and discuss steps that could be taken to recover unpaid bills from different departments.

Finance ministry officials present in the meeting said they would provide Rs15 billion in power subsidies in the current month.

Members of the committee underlined the need for ensuring equal power outages across the country and asked the officials concerned to take an initiative in this regard. They were told not to give in to any pressure while resorting to equal load-shedding.

Committee members pressed the water and power secretary to hold a meeting with the minister and prepare a strategy to do away with the “VIP culture of uninterrupted power supply”.

Committee Chairman Zahid Khan said the water and power ministry had given a wrong figure about demand and supply, and that the wrong percentages led to hours-long outages, causing unbearable suffering for the people.

“If load-shedding was being carried out in parliament lodges, why are the Supreme Court and Prime Minister’s House not treated in the same way?” he asked.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2013.

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