26 December 2004	Sunday	13 Ziqa'ad 1425

PESHAWAR, Dec 25: The NWFP government has directed its departments and district governments to clear Wapda arrears accumulated against them since July 1, 2004, sources said.

The issue of non-payment of monthly electricity bills has once again strained the Wapda-NWFP working relationship owing to non-payment of monthly power charges.

Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), the sources said, had moved the provincial government to clear Rs636 million arrears accumulated against its departments and district governments' institutions during the first five months of the current financial year.

"Arrears have accumulated against the provincial public sector consumers despite the fact that the NWFP finance department released sufficient funds to the provincial departments and district governments for taking care of their monthly utility charges," said an official of the provincial government.

Sources in the power company said that the provincial public sector consumers used Rs1.067 billion worth power during the first five months of the 2004-05 fiscal year. Against that amount the company had so far been released a total of Rs351 million.

"We are a commercial entity fast moving towards corporatization, therefore, it causes a lot of problems if the provincial government does not pay monthly bills in time," said a senior officer of the power company.

A couple of days back, according to sources in Pesco, power supply to public sector tube-wells, installed in Shahi Bagh, here, was disconnected because of non-payment of electricity charges.

Senior officials of Pesco said that the company had no other choice but to disconnect power supply.

Sources in the finance department said that instructions had been issued again to the provincial departments and district governments to clear the arrears after reconciling their bills with the relevant Pesco staff.

Brig Tahir Saeed Malik, chief executive of Pesco, told Dawn that arrears piled up against the government departments despite the fact that the provincial chief secretary had held out assurances to the company viz-a-viz timely payment of monthly bills.

The sources said that the provincial departments and districts governments in this respect, even did not pay heed to the government's instructions requiring them to pay 70 per cent of the billing amount instantly and remaining 30 per cent after reconciling the bills with the Pesco staff.

"The recently completed reconciliation of accounts with Pesco validated our point that the company has been over charging our departments, hence, we can not take more chances in future," said an official of the provincial government.

The provincial government, said the sources, managed to establish its case during the recently conducted reconciliation process.

"We have recovered some Rs250 million by proving our point that Pesco over charged our departments over the years," said an official.