ISLAMABAD: Embar­rassed by the latest report of the National Electric Power Regulatory Autho­rity (Nepra), the Prime Minister Office has sought a clarification from the Ministry of Water and Power whether the authority’s findings regarding faulty billing by power distribution companies (Disco) were true or not.

In response, the ministry has formally asked Nepra to explain how it collected the data of power generation and distribution companies showing wrong billing by them at a significantly high rate.

Know more: All power companies sent wrong bills to consumers: Nepra

The ministry’s letter addressed to the Nepra registrar said: “The authority’s annual report for the year 2014-15 has claimed that 70 per cent of time-of-use of meters in seven distribution companies is either outdated or out-timed, resulting in sending of either peak or off-peak billing wrongly.

“Therefore, it is requested to kindly share the data framing basis for this conclusion drawn by the Nepra team, including its members, their expertise, number of areas visited, number of meters checked, size of sample selected for analysis, details of concerned Disco staff co-opted for inspection, etc. The data is required by the ministry to take further action on distribution companies.”

According to sources privy to the development, a number of meetings were held at the PM Office over the past couple of days in which the Nepra report was discussed.

Senior officials at the water and power ministry were of the opinion that Nepra had based its findings on a pick-and-choose basis and these had nothing to do with the ground situation regarding distribution companies, as shown by the authority.

The Nepra report released earlier this week said that all power companies operating in public and private sectors had not only failed to meet generation, transmission and distribution standards but also sent wrong bills to consumers.

“The companies orchestrated electricity shortfalls and loadshedding as plants were kept closed and unlicensed plants were kept in operation,” it alleged.

The authority claimed that “its special teams visited consumers of various distribution companies and found that time-of-use meters of 70pc consumers were outdated and out-timed due to which some consumers were billed at off-peak rates and some at peak rates”.

However, in its verbal explanation to the PM Office during the meetings, the water and power ministry alleged that Nepra had manipulated the data to benefit certain quarters. Therefore, it was decided to seek a detailed explanation from the authority.

According to an official at the PM Office, lots of fireworks are expected between the ministry and Nepra in the coming days.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2015

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