KARACHI: KU pays power charges on commercial rates
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, May 16: The payment of electricity charges to the KESC under a commercial tariff is proving an additional and unjust burden on the University of Karachi exchequers, said sources on the campus. It is said that the KU which spent Rs43 million on electricity charges in the year 2001-02 was anticipating further increase in its power bills.
The university’s finance committee has estimated an expenditure of Rs60 million for 2005-06.
The university pays the total substation bill set up on the campus, which ultimately leads to an extraordinary increase in the utility charges. Moreover, the huge payment made to the KESC every year can be attributed to the fact that the campus is charged mostly under commercial rates instead of domestic rates, added a source, saying that it needed to be checked immediately.
Last year the KU spent about Rs88.500 million on account of utilities, excluding telephones, while is expecting the bills to swell up further and cost Rs90 million, which will include the payment against water (Rs15 millions) and gas (Rs15 million) and electricity Rs60 million, in the ensuing financial year.
In view of the interrupted supply and increasing power bills, the university has decided to establish own power generation system which would be a part of the projects being placed before the federal government for financing under academic reconstruction through infrastructural development programme, said another source.
The university is working for setting up about six gas-fired generators of different capacities at a total cost of Rs110 million, it was learnt.
At present the Karachi University gets a bulk supply of four to five megawatts through six feeders of the KESC. Problem of uncalled for power billing criteria in the case of university is a long felt issue, but it seems that university authorities were failing to take up the things properly, said a teacher.
The syndicate of the university, which had met with the then vice-chancellor, Dr Zafar Saied Saify, in the chair in 2003, had also formed a committee, headed by MPA Faisal Sabzwari, a member of the KU syndicate as well, to suggest measures for streamlining electricity usage on the campus.
The committee was supposed to move the government for the provision of electricity to the campus under domestic tariff and not under commercial rates, recalled a syndicate member, saying that no development could be seen.
Similar resolutions were inked after at the 13th and 14th meetings of the KU senate. During the last meeting of the senate held in December, 2003, the chancellor of the university, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, had also formed a four-member committee to negotiate with the KESC for introduction of concessionary power tariff.
When contacted, the convener of the senate committee on power, Dr Suhail Barkati, said that though the university’s engineering department had been discussing the tariff problem with the KESC, I personally feel that things can be sorted out only when the chancellor or some senior ministers showed personal interest or extended their all out support to the university, he added.
In the meantime, after a gap of about one and a half year, the KU senate is meeting on May 17, with the Sindh governor in the chair, to consider the budgets of the university, where it is likely that the increasing amount of the utility bills will also come under discussion, with special reference to follow up actions, said a member of the senate.
