PESHAWAR, Sept 12: The monthly recovery of Wapda from Federally Administered Tribal Areas is around Rs20.2 million against a bill of Rs1 billion and the outstanding amount of Wapda with tribal consumers has swelled to Rs17 billion.

Talking to APP, Nasir Ali Bangash, the superintending engineer of the Tribal Electricity Supply Corporation, said: “The recovery percentage from Fata is only 2.2 per cent against the consumption of 400 mega watt of electricity which is 1.3pc of the total power production”.

In the Khyber Agency alone, he continued, the electricity was consumed to the tune of Rs320 million monthly and the payment received was just about Rs1 million.

The ironical aspect is that even this recovery is made through the efforts of the political administration who collects the money under different heads.

As far as the tribesmen were concerned, Mr Bangash remarked, they were adamant not to pay even a single penny.

However, he said, Wapda has now taken up the issue seriously and launched a campaign to install meters in Fata to resolve the problem which is causing enormous loss to the utility besides creating dissent among the consumers of settled areas who are making regular payments for using electricity.

About resistance by tribesmen against the campaign, the Tesco SE said that Wapda official were facing difficulties.

But, he reiterated, the campaign would not be reversed and the tribesmen would have to pay electricity charges through installation of meters.

He said there were 180,000 consumers in Wapda, out of which 2,200 are industrial, 16,000 commercial, 3,000 irrigation and the rest domestic.

Mr Bangash advised the tribesmen to realize their responsibility and pay the electricity charges.

If they started payment of their dues, Wapda would improve and extend its services to other areas and a large population of Fata will get this facility, he concluded.—APP