Provinces told to pay Rs150bn dues to avoid power cut

• Minister says Discos will be unable to continue power supply unless outstanding amounts are paid
• Sindh owes almost Rs60bn to suppliers

ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Thursday asked all the four provincial governments to clear their electricity bills amounting to Rs150 billion in order to avoid power cuts and financial loss to the national economy.

In separate letters, Power Minister Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari sought personal intervention of the four chief ministers to help clear dues outstanding against their departments.

He warned that “with limited financial resources available with Distribution Companies (Discos), it would be very difficult to continue uninterrupted electricity supply, not to speak of financial losses to the federal government and the ensuing circular debt which is devouring our economy”.

According to these letters, Sindh tops the list with payables totalling Rs59.68bn as of September this year, followed by Balochistan’s Rs39.6bn and Punjab’s Rs38.01bn. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has the lowest electricity payables amounting to Rs8.88bn.

Mr Leghari told the chief ministers that the federal government had launched a number of reform initiatives to bring back power utility companies on the path of efficient service delivery.

“One key area of the reforms roadmap pertains to consolidation of financial health of the power distribution companies,” he said, adding that this was dependent on generating more financial resources and focusing on anti-theft and recovery of outstanding dues which have accumulated over time.

Mr Leghari said the power division was running a campaign for recovery of unpaid bills, wherein beside other challenges, one key issue is the outstanding amounts of provincial government departments that run into billions of rupees.

He asked the chief ministers to personally intervene and direct the provincial departments to clear the outstanding electricity dues.

The power division and Discos’ management would provide all possible coordination for clarifications and reconciliation of bills, the minister added.

Biggest defaulter

The government departments in Sindh have total payables of Rs59.68bn, including an amount of Rs38.16bn which is due to Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) and Rs21.5bn to Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) as of September this year.

Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco) has the highest amount of unpaid bills by public sector consumers belonging to the Balochistan government.

Five Punjab-based Discos have receivables to the tune of Rs38.01bn against Punjab government departments. Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) is the most affected company in Punjab with receivables worth Rs17.27bn as of September, followed by Rs9.90bn payable to Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco). Three other Discos — from Faisalabad, Islamabad and Gujranwala — have outstanding dues against the public sector worth Rs5.05bn, Rs2.93bn and Rs2.84bn, respectively.

Likewise, government departments of KPK have to pay Rs6.75bn to Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and Rs2.30bn to Tribal Electric Supply Company (Tesco).

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2024