GEPCO spokesman told Business Recorder that the company's inspection and surveillance teams unearthed 504 illegal connections by Kunda (hook) system and other hacking techniques in city circle, 675 connections in Cantt circle, 502 in Gujrat circle, 440 connections in Sialkot circle, 378 in Narowal circle and other sub-divisions.
The Company billed the thieves for payment of Rs. 170 million for more than one million units of stolen electricity and filed FIRs against them. GEPCO CEO Mohsin Raza Khan has instructed the management to vigorously pursue the cases of electricity theft in the courts and put the accused behind the bar. He said "we have broken the back of this unlawful activity in the Gujranwala division famed as golden triangle and industrial hub of the country with 3.3 million electricity industrial, commercial and domestic consumer connections."
It may be mentioned that the Power division has claimed that the steps taken for stoppage of electricity theft have so far achieved desirable results. The drive was not only reducing the level of theft but visible improvement had also been witnessed in provision of electricity in respective areas and recovery of revenue. 16,000 cases had been registered in drive against electricity theft by DISCOs across the country.
Referring to loss of billions of rupees in the energy sector and mounting circular debt a government spokesman stated that 12 to 13 percent gas was being stolen from the system and annual losses in the gas sector were around Rs. 50 billion. Some 5,000 gas connections had been disconnected on the offence of illegal use of gas compressors.
The PTI government under heavy debt and financial crisis due to poor governance of the previous government had ordered a countrywide crackdown on electricity theft and line losses in a bid to create an acceptable environment for a proposed 20 per cent increase in power tariff in October last year saying "it is unacceptable to make people pay for the cost of theft and mismanagement of others".