Power theft by the mighty ‘financial terrorism’: Senate body

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Special Committee of on Circular Debt on Tuesday termed electricity theft and nonpayment of bills by influential people as ‘financial terrorism’ and asked the government to make strategy for controlling it.

Convener of the committee Shibli Faraz said that the poor people are paying electricity bills regularly and if they miss one bill, their electricity is being disconnected while the influential people are regular defaulters and due to their high contacts nobody is disconnecting their connections.

Faraz said that avoiding paying electricity bills and dodging the punishment with their influence by the well-off people is “financial terrorism”. He said that the government needs to adopt strategy to fight such the financial terrorism and should also need to be included in anti-terrorism act.

Joint Secretary Power Division informed the committee that from 2013-18 the circular debt has reached to Rs579 billion. The running defaulters are of Rs348 billion, he added. He said that from March to July 2018 the generation cost of the electricity is Rs 8.52 per unit the consumer cost is Rs11.9 per unit

He said that the government is providing a subsidy of Rs52.22 billion to AJK, Rs14.2 billion to Fata and Rs31.4 billion to industrial sector. Joint Secretary said that 650 MW electricity is being provided to K Electric.

Regarding load shedding MD Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) said that there are total 8631 feeders which have been divided in various categories. On the first category there are 5367 feeders where the losses are less than 10 percent. While at the end category the losses are more than 80pc.

Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Imran Ul haq, while briefing the committee said that their circular debt [what the government has to give to PSO] has surpassed Rs 300 billion which is affecting the performance of the state owned oil company. Due to which, the company is facing problem in the investment. Imran Ul haq said that monthly they are getting only 9 percent payments for the oil supply. Even now the Power division has demanded 19000 tones furnace oil and if they refused the fuel supply to the power sector 9000 MW oil based electricity will vanish from the system.

The committee asked the MD PSO to provide the details of the circular debt and its proposal for its resolution to the committee in written. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) while briefing about load shedding and performance of the company said that out of total 487 feeders, 51 have less than 10 percent losses while 299 have more than 80 percent losses. The provincial government is not cooperating in controlling the theft. He informed that 11800 applications have been given against the electricity theft where only 79 FIR were registered. It is hard to work against the power thieves due to political interference, he added.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) said that there are 409 feeders in HESCO region. Currently 118 feeders are load shedding free while on the remaining there is 6 to 8 hours load shedding, he added.

Chief of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) said that the total consumers of PESCO are three million and there is capacity to consume 5000 MW electricity however due to weak transmission and distribution system the company can take only 2100 MW electricity.

In absence of proper system Tribal Electric Supply Company (Tesco) is also getting power from Pesco. There are total 906 feeders in PESCO region where 17 to 18 are being shared with Tesco, he added. On 205 feeders there is a loss of 50 percent or above.

The meeting was attended by senators Dr Jamaldeeni, Mir Kabeer, Usman Kakar, Sujjad Turi. Additional secretary power division and other high government officials attended the meeting.