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KARACHI, Oct 9: The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation has begun a campaign to recover outstanding dues by allowing its consumers to pay the arrears in instalments.
This was announced by the KESC managing director, Brig Tariq Mahmood Khan Saddozai, at a press conference here on Tuesday.
Unveiling the details of the recovery campaign, he said the KESC would write off the arrears of less than Rs10,000 outstanding against the consumers for more than 10 years. He admitted that such a waiver would result in a large loss, but “the KESC wants to provide relief to its consumers”.
Mr Saddozai said that those consumers against whom the outstanding dues were less than Rs10,000 (till June 30) would be able to pay up in 15 equal monthly instalments. The instalments would be added to the bills.
He said that those consumers against whom the outstanding dues were more than Rs10,000 (till June 30) would be able to pay up in 10 equal monthly instalments with an upfront payment of 30 per cent of the arrears.
He said that those consumers who had not been able to pay their dues between July and September would be allowed to pay their arrears in the bill of October.
Besides, he added, the power utility had set up special counters at KESC centres where consumers could have their bills rectified.
The KESC managing director observed that the utility was following a carrot-and-stick approach. “If the consumers do not pay the arrears in instalments, they will have to pay the entire amount. They may also face disconnection,” he said.
FINANCIAL POSITION: Mr Saddozai said that the total receipts of the KESC was Rs2.519 billion and its total payment was Rs3.586 billion. He said the power utility faced a cash shortfall of Rs1.068 billion.
“The major reason of such an enormous cash shortfall is an exorbitant increase in fuel prices,” he said.
The KESC managing director admitted that another major reason of the cash shortfall was high transmission and distribution losses — attributable largely to power pilferage. “Last year, the T&D losses were 40 per cent. This year they came down to 37 per cent,” he told newsmen.
He said the third reason of the huge cash shortfall was higher level of receivables.
PLANS: The KESC managing director said the power utility was trying to reduce the T&D losses by taking three measures: taking out meters in posh localities, bus bar system in commercial areas, and removal of illegal connections.
Mr Saddozai told newsmen that at present there were about 350,000 illegal connections which resulted in power pilferage of 105 megawatts, costing the KESC at least Rs113 million.
LOAN: He said a consortium of four banks would extend a loan of Rs6 billion to the KESC shortly to help it overcome its financial problems.
AMTs: Reversing a decision taken by the former managing director of the KESC, Brig Shahid Mukhtar Shah, about sending the army monitoring teams back to the barracks by the end of this year, the present managing director said that he would request the Army Monitoring Teams to stay on and help the KESC recover the outstanding dues.
“The amount recovered by the Army Monitoring Teams is Rs3.5 billion,” he said.
The punitive drive against defaulter would take off immediately after Eid-ul-Azha in December during which no leniency would be observed as every faltering individual would be prosecuted in accordance with the law, adds PPI.
According to him the corporation had been striving to maximize the use of gas for power generation as the Sui Southern Gas had been providing 80mm CF of gas daily for the Port Qasim power plant, which would help the corporation save Rs185 million a month.
