Crackdown by FIA on overbilling under way

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) countrywide crackdown on the people involved in overbilling of electricity bills is continuing.

The FIA during the crackdown examined 38,929 meters, found 256 connections in overbilling, held 23 inquiries, lodged 5 cases against different distribution companies and recovered billions of rupees received through overbilling in electricity bill of private houses, factories and government departments, a spokesman for the FIA Headquarters said.

“During the last one month, 929.6 million units were wrongly included in electricity bills, receiving Rs34 billion and Rs290 million through overbilling and extra financial burden was put on the people as well as government departments,” he maintained.

During the crackdown, the FIA Lahore Zone caught 157 connections and found 925.7 million extra units in electricity bills as overbilling, the spokesman said. The FIA Gujranwala Zone checked 948 meters and caught 30 meters with overbilling of 760,930 units. The FIA Faisalabad Zone examined 615 meters and found 8 connections with overbilling of 153,137 units, while FIA Multan Zone found 19 connections and overbilling of 147,074 units, FIA Kohat Zone marked 16 connections with extra billing of 67,425 units, FIA Hyderabad Zone pointed out 13 connections with overbilling of 80,678 units and FIA Peshawar Zone discovered 12 connections and overbilling of 49,194 units.

The sources said that staff of different distribution companies (DISCOS) were found involved in overbilling through the meter readers while sources of DISCOS claimed that meter readers were forced by the hierarchy of distribution companies who got financial benefits through overbilling. They said meter readers get no gain from the overbilling offense.

Director General FIA Ahmad Ishaq Jahangir ordered the FIA zones concerned to complete the inquiries against people involved in overbilling and produced their challans before the court of law without delay. He said that people causing financial losses to the public would not be spared. The DG directed to continue the operation against the overbilling offenders till the last person involved in putting extra financial burden on the public is apprehended.