August 31, 2008	Sunday	Sha'aban 28, 1429

HYDERABAD, Aug 30: The acting chief executive of the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), Habibullah Khilji, complained on Saturday that Sindh government was not paying the Rs7.6 billion dues it owed the company despite agreeing earlier to pay after reconciling the power bills.

Speaking to journalists at his office, Mr Khilji said that a recently held meeting with chief secretary had decided that joint teams of Hesco and government officers would check readings and reconcile the bills.

Sindh government departments owed Rs7.6 billion, federal government Rs500 million and private consumers owed the company Rs14 billion as dues, he said.

“We are issuing bills after joint reading of meters still they are not accepting it. Earlier, it had been decided that Sindh government’s teams would reconcile bills in joint visits in July but it did not happen. Now they have sought time to do it in two months,” he said.

He said that bills had earlier been reconciled over the same dispute. Any party could level allegations against the other and it was happening in Hesco’s case, he said when he was told that Sindh government was objecting to levy of late payment surcharge. He said that as per directives of federal water and power minister there would be no loadshedding during sehar and iftar hours and Hesco was trying not to exceed load-management schedule beyond six and eight hours in urban and rural areas. He said that Hesco’s shortfall in the country’s overall energy deficit stood at 650 megawatts. Hesco’s position as far as containment of line losses and recovery were concerned was better than other distribution companies, he claimed.

Out of 1,450,000 power consumers, connections of 300,000 had been permanently disconnected on account of non-payment of dues while 250,000 consumers were making payments irregularly, he said. There were 600,000 to 700,000 others who made payments after a long period, he said.

“Private consumers owe Rs14 billion and Sindh government is defaulting on payment of Rs7.6 billion whereas the central government agencies had an outstanding dues of Rs500 million,” he said.

Mr Khilji admitted that wrong or excess billings and illegal detection bills were being issued by Hesco’s staff. The company had taken the officials to task and even executive engineers and SDOs had been removed from service over the charges. They had challenged the order in courts and before National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC), he said.

He dismissed common complaint about issuance of average bills.