ISLAMABAD: The power consumers are still subjected to the systematic overbilling of over Rs30 billion in one year and, in the month of January 2018, end consumers has paid Rs1.970 billion more on account of manipulation in units by electric power distribution companies (Discos).
The latest presentation on Discos performance, pitched before higher authorities, unfolds that Discos are still involved in overbilling by manipulated units in the electricity bills sent to the consumers.
The copy of the presentation in possession of The News clearly shows that in the month of November, 2017, as many as 10.5 percent units of electricity are manipulated and are illegally added in electricity bills, in December last year, 14.7 percent and in the month of January this year 3.9 percent units are manipulated and added in the electricity bills.
Though the Power Division, headed by Sardar Awais Laghari, has lunched a campaign against the overbilling, but Discos are still involved in the systematic manipulation of the electricity units to cope with the distribution losses which factually stand at 19 percent.
The relevant joint secretary says that though Federal Minister Sardar Awais Laghari is serious to do away with the curse of overbilling, yet it has been reported that many Discos are still involved in ugly practice and to this effect, in Multan ElectricPower Company (Mepco) alone, overbilling has gone up to Rs5.50 billion.
One of the top men in the power division also told The News that the Mepco consumers have paid a mammoth amount of Rs5.50 billion in the head of overbilling which is sheer unjustified with the consumers.
And, likewise, all the unscrupulous elements in all Discos are involved in the overbilling. In one year, there are 12 months, but the electricity consumers pay almost for 14 months in one year in the form of overbilling.
However, the Mepco spokesman denies any overbilling to the consumers, but the top man of the division showing the document to The News unfolded the overbilling done by Mepco stands at Rs5.50 billion.
The minister said: “We have got approved the amendment to the Nepra Act from the NA Committee on Power which will soon be tabled in the Parliament for making it part of [the] Nepra Act.”
The amendment to the Nepra Act stipulates three-year imprisonment for charging overbilling and wrong billing by the Disco officials from the electricity consumers. “For the first time, overbilling has been declared as crime.”
Top functionaries of some Discos that include Lesco, Fesco, Mepco, Gepco and Iesco told The News, on the condition of anonymity, that the entities were under tremendous pressure by top mandarins of ministries of water and power, and finance to collect maximum revenue to show the performance in terms of improving the revenue and reducing the circular debt and that is why they adopted a modus operandi under which masses are subjected to overbilling.
It is pertinent to note that the National Electric Power regulatory Authority (Nepra), in its annual report 2014-15, had revealed that Discos had not only subjected the countrymen to the fake power outages but also to the massive overbilling.
In that report 2015, Nepra had also mentioned that 70 percent of time of use (ToU) meters in eight distribution companies were either outdated or out-timed, resulting in sending of either peak or off-peak billing wrongly. However, the then Ministry of Water and Power did not believe in Nepra’s report.
Dr Mussadiq Malik, the then Special Assistant to the PM on Water and Power, had submitted its report on overbilling that had hit countrymen in August 2014. And, according to that particular report, the power distribution companies (Discos) had fleeced billions of rupees from the electricity consumers by overcharging them in the month of August.
The then Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan, in that cabinet meeting, had also raised the issue of inflated bills that the consumers were receiving. The then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in that particular meeting, had tasked Dr Mussadiq Malik to probe the matter and submit a report to him.
Dr Mussadiq Malik, as per the direction of the prime minister, had randomly probed the electricity bills of 150,000 consumers and found the bitter reality that meter readers of some Discos did not discharge their responsibility of reading the meters of 35 percent consumers and sent them electricity bills without reading their meters. Discos, the report said, had sent consumers the electricity bills based on estimates exposing them to huge surge in their electricity bills forcing them to pay the cost for electricity they did not use.
from The News International - National
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