Saif urges federal govt to pay net hydel profit arrears

PESHAWAR: Urging the federal government to pay net hydel profit arrears, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Saturday expressed willingness to find out a workable solution to the electricity theft and recovery of outstanding dues from the defaulters.

Advisor to Chief Minister on Information and Public Relations, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif said that electricity theft was the failure of the federal government and the KP government was ready to tackle the issue.

He said that a federal minister had blamed the KP government for the power pilferage, which was an improper gesture on the part of the minister and it showed his own inefficiency and failure.

“Curbing electricity theft is the job of the federal government but federal Minister Awais Leghari does not know about his responsibilities,” the advisor said, adding that allegations were being levelled against the KP government instead of paying it its billions of rupees of net hydel profit.

He said that KP chief minister had already suggested to the federal government to adjust the arrears of net hydel profit in the electricity bills of the province.

“Actually we did not receive any letter from the federal government about arrears of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but when a journalist called me to seek my opinion on the purported letter, which even the journalist didn’t have, I explained our erstwhile position. The federal government needs to pay Rs1500 billion to the KP government in terms of net hydel profit and we would appreciate it if they wanted to sit with us to resolve this long awaited issue,” Barrister Saif told The News.

He said that Awais Leghari should not have written a letter about Rs188 billion but he must have also talked about Rs1500 billion as well being owed by the federal government to the province.