The AGP officials further said that around Rs 73.76 billion financial irregularities were unearthed in the accounts of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA). Secretary Power Division Naseem Khokhar while briefing the panel said that to address the issue of over billing the government has finalized a plan and according to which three years imprisonment has been recommended for the employees of power distribution companies if proved guilty in over-billing to power consumers.
According to the audit report, Rs 28.18 billion financial losses were incurred to the national kitty due to below the capacity operations of IPPs. The report said that IPPs and Gencos didn't enhance power production despite the fact that crude oil prices witnessed a significant cut worldwide and as a result electricity consumers faced up to 12 hours a day load-shedding over the period.
The audit officials further said that NEPRA by allowing the power distribution companies to increase electricity tariff put additional burden on consumers. They said that K-Electric also took the advantage of the situation and put an additional burden of Rs 14.5 billion on power consumers. The panel was further told by the AGP officials that K-Electric didn't operate power plants on full capacity and got expensive power from Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) and the additional cost was recovered from the poor consumers.
Khursheed Shah said if K-E chief executive does not attend the next meeting of the committee, he must be arrested and brought to the panel meeting. "We will compel him to attend the next meeting," Shah said.
The NEPRA officials said that K-E authorities are not allowing net metering in their limits and are not ready to follow NEPRA guidelines, adding that the authority has started taking relevant action against K-E for not following the guidelines.
Khokhar said the federal government and K-E agreement of supplying power from the national grid of 7 years has expired which so far has not been reviewed. He added that privatization is a must to avert billions of rupees of financial losses due to various problems in power sector.
Member Committee Arif Alvi said that overcharging the power consumers by power distribution companies is cruelty, adding that he was unable to understand as to why the government supplied power to Karachi from the most expensive power producing plants. Alvi said that NEPRA should investigate why K-Electric failed to operate its own plants and purchased expensive power to supply it to Karachi.
Secretary Ministry of Energy Power Division, Naseem Khokhar said that at present Pakistan is producing additional power as total demand stands at 13,355 megawatts (MW) while total power production is 14,500MW. He added that at present Pakistan is importing 70MW of power from Iran. He said the government of Pakistan is in talks with Iranian government to import additional 100MW for Gwadar. The panel was informed that Iran has completed power transmission line up to Gwadar while work on the Pakistani side has not yet been started.
Member Committee Sheikh Rasheed said that the government is overcharging the power consumers by Rs 200 billion annually by putting all the burden of power theft and transmission losses on them.
Member Committee Sardar Ashiq Hussian Gopang said that transmission losses and power theft burden must not be shifted onto the electricity consumers because those paying power bills are not responsible for theft and transmission losses.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017