KARACHI: KESC’s rift with Wapda on tariff intensfies
By Arman Sabir
KARACHI, April 30: Citizens are likely to suffer more power breakdowns as the rift between the Water and Power Development Authority and the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation deepened on Sunday after the latter disputed the tariff arbitrary levied by Wapda.
The KESC claimed that it had cleared all of the outstanding dues up to February 2006 at the rate of Rs3.69 per kilowatt hour.
However, Wapda officials claimed otherwise saying that the KESC owed Rs5.835 billion to the authority by March 31. The KESC had cleared only Rs1.323 billion but the arrears would jump to Rs7.512 billion after the billing of April, the officials maintained.
A KESC spokesman said: “The Wapda is claiming extra charges from the privatised KESC by raising the power supply tariff unilaterally from Rs3.69 to Rs5.1 per kilowatt hour without providing legitimate reason, while power companies throughout the country are being charged Rs.3.2 per kwh.”
The issue of tariff and payment of outstanding dues was raised after the ongoing tussle between the Wapda and the KESC had intensified over the cut in power supply of 550KW from Wadpa to the KESC as agreed between the two. The corporation had claimed that the power supply from Wapda was cut on Friday last and a vast area of the city plunged into darkness. The supply was restored Saturday morning after it was highlighted in the media, KESC officials claimed.
However, following some electronic media reports in which Wapda was wrongly blamed for the short supply, the authority’s officials addressed a press conference in Lahore and clarified Wapda’s position that the quota set by the water and power ministry for the KESC was 550MW. By March, they said, it was given a maximum supply of 610MW. They said that Wapda did not receive any complaint from the KESC about short supply. They said that on early Friday the KESC could receive only 300megawatts from Wapda because one of its circuits had tripped. “This is not our fault and if the KESC wants to get the required supply it will have to upgrade its system,” they said.
The KESC in its press release issued on Sunday stated that the new management of the privatised power utility had already requested the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority on March 6 to resolve the issue of extra charging on the grounds that the KESC was a legitimate consumer of the NTDC for the last five years and being supplied power as per demand (230 to 600 MW). Besides, Karachi is also part of the country and the cost of power higher than other cities would not be sustainable for its consumers.
A number of meetings with the government were held by the KESC to resolve the issue and the last one was held on April 19 in Islamabad. The meeting, presided over by Federal Water and Power Minister Liaquat Jatoi, decided that the matter would be sent to the NEPRA for fair resolution.
“The KESC has complied with the decision on April 27 and KESC CEO Frank Scherschmidt has sent a communication to Nepra Chairman Lt Gen (rtd) Saeeduz Zafar to review the matter of Wapda-NTDC billing, as it bears serious financial consequences for the electricity consumer of Karachi,” the press release added.
The KESC press release further stated that Wapda-NTDC Chairman Tariq Hamid warned the KESC through a letter (No: C/2006/58 dated April 18), which stated: “Through this letter we are requesting you to clear our outstanding by Saturday this week i.e.22nd of April 2006. In case of non-payment we will be forced to cut you off from Sunday i.e. 23rd of April. Apparently, you do not attach any importance to our reminders and requests. We cannot tolerate this state of affairs any more.”
KESC officials said that the power supply from Wapda was ultimately suspended last Friday night knowingly that the matter was to be resolved by the Nepra and the legitimate dues up to Feb 06 had been paid by the KESC.
The KESC asked the Wapda to continue supporting the Karachi power utility as they were doing in the past till the resolution of the issue by the Nepra.
