LARKANA, Sept 13: The Hyderabad Electricity Supply Company (Hesco) on Saturday launched a massive exercise of physical verification of power meters installed in government departments and entities to settle a nagging dispute between the provincial government and the power utility over outstanding dues.

The process would take two months to complete under the supervision of district coordination officers in all the cities of the province but Karachi, said the sources.

The chief secretary of Sindh and chairman of Wapda had decided in a meeting in Karachi on Aug 18 to settle the dispute by carrying out physical verification of government connections to assess billing details and ground realities.

The sources said that Hesco claimed Rs9 billion dues for a year for 25,000 government connections in sharp contrast to the Punjab where number of connections stood at 125,000 and electricity dues per year were only Rs1.5 billion.

There was great difference between power tariff in Sindh and Punjab. Sindh had to pay more power. The company was charging more in Sindh to cover power theft and line losses, the sources close to the assessment said.

The fresh survey and assessment conducted by the district government Larkana revealed that Hesco had issued bills even to closed schools, basic health units, rural health centres and tube-wells of Scarp division.

It also transpired that highly inflated bills had been issued to schools during summer vacation (June and July) and health facilities where no power meters had been installed.

The sources said that Hesco Larkana circle had claimed the district government Larkana owed it Rs291 million for 2007-08 alone.

The district government said that Hesco had included even the connections of Shikarpur, Qambar-Shahdakot districts and provincial and federal government in the district government’s account.

The district government had finally agreed to pay Rs106 million, the actual amount of dues after slashing the extra amount of Rs185 million, the sources said.

After high-level meeting between the chief secretary and chairman of Wapda, the secretary of irrigation Meer Muhamed Parihar formed a committee of 14 electrical and mechanical graduate officers on Aug 29 carry out the exercise for reconciliation, determination of actual load and exact liability on each connection in every division of Hesco.

The exercise kicked off simultaneously in Garikhata, Latif Abab, Phuleli, Tando Allahyar, Mirpurkhas, Digri, Kotri, Tando Mohammed Khan, Thatta, Nawabshah, Tando Adam, Sanghar, Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur, Raniupr, Rohri, Larkana-I,II, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Dadu, Mehar, Naushahro Feroze and Moro,

The sources said that the process would continue till Oct 10, 2008 and the cell would compile the assessment within eight days of submission of reports.