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KARACHI, March 10: The administration of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation will bind the buyer of the power company after its sell-off not to dismiss a single employee at least for one year.
This was announced by the KESC managing director, Brig Tariq Saddozai, at the annual dinner organized by the KESC Engineers and Officers Association (KEOA) on Saturday night.
When this reporter pointed out to Mr Saddozai afterwards that according to the reco-mmendations of the KESC financial adviser, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the strategic buyer would be allowed to carry out administrative restructuring — a euphemism for jettisoning extra workforce in a bid to cut costs — he said the Canada-based financial adviser might have recommended that but the KESC administration would do what was required to safeguard the interest of its workers before privatization.
“The KESC management is doing its utmost to dispel the misgivings of workers about privatization. It is considering a voluntary retirement scheme for the workers as well.”
PRIVATIZATION: The KESC managing director also described the roadmap to privatization. “The KESC management is drawing up the terms of reference for privatization. Bidding will commence in June and the power utility will be privatized in September.”
He added that the army would work for one year with the power company’s buyer one year after its privatization.
When asked what the Rs92 billion debt-equity swap actually meant in plain English, he said: “The KESC suffers a loss of Rs1.2 billion every month. The KESC spends Rs850 million on debt-servicing every month. After the debt-equity swap — as a result of which the government debt has been converted into equity — the power company will not have to spend Rs850 million every month on debt-servicing. The KESC can overcome the remaining loss if it receives the required amount of natural gas from the Sui Southern Gas Company.”
TARIFF: The KESC managing director said President Gen Pervez Musharraf had issued clear-cut directives about tariff increase. ”The KESC will revise tariff only when there is a change in cost of fuels and inflation.”
LOAD-SHEDDING: When Mr Saddozai was asked when the KESC would start much-dreaded load-shedding as summer would begin shortly, he said: “Peak power demand during summers is 1,850 megawatts or thereabouts. The KESC can generate 1,900 megawatts only with the help of the Water and Power Development Authority. This balanced equation goes awry in the event of a breakdown which cannot be ruled out in sultry Karachi summers.”
He said that in order to overcome the problem of loadshedding once and for all, the KESC would have a direct link from Hubco next year. “The direct link from Hubco will give the KESC an additional 1,200 megawatts.”
Earlier, the KEOA president, G.R. Bhatti, spoke at length about various demands and requests of KESC employees. He observed that the KESC had failed to lay down service rules despite the fact that it had been established 90 years ago.
Demanding a revision in allowances, he said: “In Wapda, employees get various facilities, such as free electricity, even after retirement. The same facility should be offered to KESC employees.”
The programme was ably compered by KESC billing-in-charge, Anwer Ali Roomi.
