ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The federal government will provide Rs 25 billion to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on account of total net hydel profit of Rs 70 billion in four months, said Additional Secretary, Ministry of Water and Power Omar Rasul.
Briefing National Assembly Standing Committee on Water and Power which met with Muhammad Arshad Khan Laghari in the chair, the official said that the government was taking serious measures to resolve all outstanding issues of the power sector and resolution of over 15 year-long controversy of net hydel profit with KPK government spoke high volumes of its sincerity.
Similarly, he added efforts were being made to overcome line losses which had been one of the major hurdles in way of meeting the total shortfall which had swell to 5930 MW.
He said the rate of power losses were high in Sindh, Balochistan and KPK and described Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) as bad Disco, registering above 50 percent losses on its 227 feeders of 11 KV.
While Lahore Electric Supply Company’s (LESCO) only 30 feeders of 11 KV were operating with above 50 percent losses.
He said law and order situation had been one of the major impediments to collect bills, however, he added efforts were being made to improve situation. Overall, he said, 499 feeders of all the nine Discos were running with above 50 percent line losses.
He apprised that one percent losses meant loss of Rs 7 to 8 billion.
He said that government was striving to resolve the loadshedding issues and its duration had been reduced considerably as compared to the corresponding period of the last year.
He said that Discos were observing six hours loadshedding for urban areas while for the rural areas, it stood at 18 hours to protect the system.
He said generation capacity was also being enhanced through utilization of all available resources and presently, installed capacity which had gone up to 22884 MW with de-rated capacity upto 20653 MW.
He added that loadshedding was being carried out proportionately with a mechanism purely based on efficiency index.
He said high losses feeders were subject to high loadshedding while zero loss feeders were exempted from loadshedding.
As far as, he added un-scheduled loadsheddig was concerned, it was carried out because of odd circumstance including certain break down, tripping, climate and system constraints.
On this front, he said that data clearly indicated that percentage of losses in respect of KPK, Sindh and QESCO was comparatively very much on higher side as compared with DISCOs in Punjab.
He said solid measures had been taken to overcome over-billing issue and action had been taken against the culprits at DISCOs level.
He said meter reading through mobile phone was being carried out in all the DISCOs and reading of the meter was being printed on the electricity bill.
So far, he said a total of 838 sub-divisions had converted into mobile meter reading including 142 of LESCO and 96 of PESCO.
He said the government had enhanced the punishment and fine against the theft of electricity and special campaign had been launched in the DISCOs to control theft. He added that media campaign was in full swing for creating awareness among public.
The LESCO Chief said that the company was vigorously pursuing a drive for dues recovery, but sometime, its officials were beaten up and thrashed in certain areas of Punjab.
He said Rs 20 billion had been recovered from tube-wells in Punjab and transformers of the defaulters were taken away without any discrimination.
He said the government had capped per unit for tube-wells at Rs 10.35 per unit, adding that WAPDA could not decrease it on its own, and if the government reduced, the ministry would implement it accordingly.
He said that government was passing impact of reduction in oil prices onto the masses and it passed Rs 97 billion relief to consumers on account of fuel price adjustment during July 2015 to January 2016.
About the circular debt, he said in the financial year 2013-2014, there was a gap of Rs 188.3 billion. However, he said constant financial review of the distribution companies started in financial year 2014-15 and resultantly, the receipts from distribution companies increased significantly due to which, the gap was reduced to Rs 40 billion.
He said receivable from Punjab, KPK, Sindh and Balochistan stood at Rs 4.90 billion, Rs 1.87 billion, Rs 74.11 billion and 4.54 billion respectively.
Source: APP
