KARACHI: KESC asked to replace faulty, fast meters
KARACHI, May 4: A high-level meeting held here on Thursday was told that KESC meters were grossly faulty and that the utility issued inflated bills.
The meeting, chaired by Advisor to the Chief Minister on Finance Mr M. A. Jalil, was held to review the matters relating to KESC’s dues outstanding against the KWSB.
KWSB Managing Director Iftikhar Haider, pointing out that KESC meters were grossly faulty, pointed out that the bills issued to the KWSB were based on average consumption and not the actual meter reading. He maintained that the units charged were much more than actually consumed by the KWSB.
In this regard, he referred to a bill of Rs70 million issued by the KESC to the Dhabeji pumping station, and said that the same was inflated. He also pointed out that the KESC meter installed at the Hub pumping station had remained out of order from July 2004 to February 2006. The KESC, he said, issued a bill, on the basis of average consumption, for the whole period. The bill appeared 25 per cent in excess to the actual consumption. He also quoted examples of the bills issued to 16 major pumping stations, and said that all these bills were on the higher side by 11 per cent.
Mr Jalil, taking serious notice of the faulty meters and inflated billing, set up a committee, headed by consultant Aijaz Nabi Abbasi, with the assignment of checking the power meters and looking into the matter of excessive billing. Representatives from the KESC and KWSB are its members.
He directed the committee to submit its detailed report to the provincial finance department, saying this exercise would save the provincial government tens of millions of rupees every month.
The adviser asked the KESC to replace faulty and fast meters and conduct an inquiry into the matter of average billing. He also ordered checking of meters after every three months.
Mr Jalil said that if the KESC failed to provide meter checking equipment to the KWSB, the checking would be done through the Siemens’ equipment or the KWSB would import such a gadget for the purpose.—PPI
