Rs600 billion electricity stolen annually: minister

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Energy Sardar Owais Ahmad Laghari has said electricity theft causes a loss of Rs600 billion annually to the country.

Talking to Geo News programme Jirga host Saleem Safi, he said the country had 6,000 megawatts of spare power on Saturday but it was not deliberately provided because it would have caused another Rs2.5 billion loss to the nation.

“Feeders which demanded electricity were not on meters. Illegal transformers have been set up and we cannot provide electricity to them. If we provide electricity to them, then the burden will be on consumers who have installed meters. The federation has no charity money to give. It is our responsibility to stop electricity theft,” he maintained.

He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan had been requested to stop electricity theft.

“The chief minister Punjab started helping us even before we asked for it. Electricity theft causes a loss of Rs600 billion annually. We will do everything to stop it and would not come under any political pressure or threat.”

The minister said there is an annual loss of Rs137 billion in Pesco and tribal areas. “Apart from Karachi, electricity worth Rs51 billion is being stolen annually in Sindh. Electricity worth Rs133 billion is being stolen in Punjab and Rs100 billion power is being stolen in Balochistan. All provinces are not electricity thieves.

Electricity worth Rs65 billion is being stolen in Peshawar, Mardan, Dera Ismail Khan, Nowshera and Charsadda.

It is not possible to discriminate against any province involved in electricity theft. Attempts are being made to give it a political colour but we will take steps to stop electricity theft without political rhetoric,” he maintained.

“There was pressure on all the chief ministers on the issue of loadshedding, but no one reacted like the KP chief minister. If he wants 24-hour electricity to people of his province, then our formula will provide better results,” he concluded.