PESHAWAR: The recovery of Rs50 million power dues against the Cadet College Razmak in North Waziristan Agency has become a bone of contention between the Tribal Electric Supply Company and the college’s management.

Official statistics reveal various government offices in Fata owe more than Rs1.9 billion arrears to the Tesco.

The management of the Cadet College Razmak had abandoned the building in 2009 when militants abducted over 300 students and teachers going to their homes from North Waziristan.

Currently, troops have occupied the building, while college is being run in a rented building in Nowshera district.

An official told Dawn that as per rules the outstanding dues were against particular premises on which the meter was installed.

He said the college was defaulter of Rs50 million dues although security forces stationed in the building had been consuming electricity.

The army, which uses college premises, insists it was called to help NWA admin, so relevant authorities will pay the amount

Sources said the plea of the college’s management was that it had vacated the premises about five years ago and electricity was now utilised by another entity.

They said the army’s version was that security forces had been called in to assist civil administration and therefore, the political agent of North Waziristan or Civil Secretariat Fata would pay the dues.

The official said the issue had been taken up with additional chief secretary of Fata and the Ministry of State and Frontier Regions, but solution was still pending.

He said disputes over power dues in other tribal areas including Bara in Khyber Agency, where security forces were conducting operations against militants, had not been resolved despite negotiations with the relevant offices.

Officials said the cash-strapped Tesco had outstanding dues worth Rs1.9 billion against six departments, directorates and offices of the political administrations in seven tribal agencies and six Frontier Regions (FRs) in Fata.

The department wise breakup of outstanding dues in Fata is Rs70.955 million against higher education department, Rs60.522 million against defunct Fata Development Corporation, Rs117.938 million against health department, Rs58.387 million against offices of political agents in various tribal agencies, Rs318.081 million against water management Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Rs185.48 million against works and services department, according to an official document.

The concerned official said offices of political agent in Kurram Agency owed Rs10 million outstanding dues to the company.

He said the dispute with the political agent Kurram Agency about arrears had not been settled.

“When the government offices don’t pay power bills then how one can expect payment of arrears from domestic and commercial consumers in Fata,” said the official, ”meter at the official residence of Bajaur Agency political agent was recently installed.”

He said the federal government had paid Rs6 billion to Wapda after deducting the amount from Fata budget on behalf of domestic consumers in tribal areas, where the people didn’t pay electricity bills.

The federal government roughly pays Rs12 billion to Wapda at source deduction on behalf of domestic consumers annually despite the fact that the people get electricity only for two to three hours on daily basis for domestic consumption.

The company supplies 175 megawatts electricity against the average demand of 545 megawatts in Fata.

The power consumers in Fata total 440,981 but the meters have not been installed except few towns where domestic, commercial and industrial consumers pay power bills.

Officials said Tesco had started installation of commercial meters in Bajaur and Kurram agencies and would be installed for commercial sector in other tribal agencies too.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2016