Unpaid bills: Consumers owe Rs103b to Quetta power utility

The agriculture consumers alone owe Qesco Rs 81 billion.

QUETTA:

A number of consumers, including the state-run corporations and private users, owe Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco) Rs103 billion over non-payment of electricity bills. The agriculture consumers alone owe the utility Rs81 billion.

The Ministry for Water and Power ordered a strict action against the defaulters, it also warned of disconnecting their electricity supply. “The outstanding amount is equal to half the electricity budget of Balochistan government,” a Qesco spokesperson said.

Qesco will increase the hours of load shedding in areas where consumers are not paying the bills properly. The agriculture consumers owe Rs 81 billion solely, the corporations under provincial government owe Rs5.2 billion, those under federal government owe Rs509 million, while households, commercial and other users have not paid an outstanding amount of Rs 6.1 billion.

Moreover, the federal and provincial governments have not paid the outstanding amount of Rs 10.2 billion in regard to subsidy given on tube wells in Balochistan.

“As many as four teams have been formed in all circles of Qesco following the directives of federal ministry. They will take action against defaulters,” Qesco CEO Engineer Baleghuz Zaman said on Monday. These four teams will submit the recovery reports to the commercial officer on a daily basis, he added.

It has been decided that departmental action would be taken against those officers who would fail to recover the outstanding dues.  This is why, all the officers have been asked to take action against the defaulters without any discrimination and political bias. Legal action would be taken under Electricity Act 1910 under which the person found guilty will be fined and jailed on the spot.

The agriculture consumers are not even paying the Rs6,000 monthly amount which is why their outstanding amount is increasing rapidly.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2014.