December 6, 2003	Saturday	Shawwal 11, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 5: Wapda has to recover outstanding electricity dues amounting to Rs1.74 billion from different defaulting government departments working under the governments of NWFP and Balochistan and the federal government.

They include such offices as President House, Chief Justice of Pakistan’s office and Chairman Senate’s office.

The Senate was told here on Friday during the question hour that the amount Wapda has to recover pertains to the period between 2002 and 2003.

Muhammad Nasir Khan, the health minister on behalf of water and power minister, informed the upper house that Wapda was regularly requesting the finance division and the government to arrange deduction at source of outstanding electricity dues and could not disconnect the sensitive defaulting departments.

Moreover some government departments were also complaining about the non-availability of funds for making payment of electricity bills.

He said that Wadpa was also taking measures to recover the arrears but there also existed disputes between the provincial departments and the local departments over the billing which the Wapda people were looking into.

The major defaulting departments of the federal government, he said, had to pay an outstanding amount of Rs164 million in the year ending March 2003, while in 2002 the outstanding sum stood at Rs180 million.

The President’s secretariat/ President House Islamabad has to pay an amount of Rs4.22 million in 2003, Militia and Scouts (Rs3.03 million), Chief Justice of Pakistan’s office/residence Islamabad (Rs8.92 million), chairman Senate office/residence Islamabad (Rs1.78 million), Pakistan Secretariat (Rs13.69 million), ministry of health (Rs15.68 million), Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (Rs8.4 million), Frontier Corps Balochistan (Rs17.38 million), ministry of science and technology (Rs2.57 million), ministry of Haj and auqaf (Rs3.1 million), ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Rs3.26 million), ministry of information and media development (Rs3.44 million), ministry of law (Rs5.28 million), ministry of industries and production (Rs17.71 million), information technology and telecommunications divisions (Rs5.15 million), income tax department (Rs4.03 million), Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (Rs1.64 million), Frontier Constabulary (Rs5.68 million) etc.

Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz informed the Senate that the federal government also arranges a subsidy of Rs20 to 35 billion annually to clear the deficit of Wapda accruing to it due to unpaid bills.