PESHAWAR, Dec 27: Reluctance on the part of district governments to make their departments pay electricity bills on a regular basis is likely to cost heavily to the cash-strapped provincial government, official sources said.

“It is feared that the amount outstanding against the provincial government on account of unpaid electricity bills of the district governments would come to around one billion rupees by the close of the current financial year,” said a senior government official. In case the district governments continued to ignore payment of monthly electricity bills the amount would have to be paid by the provincial government.

“It would aggravate the financial worries of the provincial government,” the official added.

The sources said majority of the district governments were not paying attention to the provincial government’s repeated instructions about timely and regular payment of electricity bills. The district governments have been asked on various occasions to attach top priority to the clearance of their electricity bills in an effort to avoid accumulation of electricity arrears.

“But most of them appear to be least bothered about the instructions,” said the officer.

The provincial government paid around Rs500 million to the Water and Power Development Authority during the current financial year on behalf of the district governments to clear their electricity dues.

In all, the provincial government paid around Rs1.2 billion to Wapda during the current financial year to clear its liabilities outstanding on account of non-payment of electricity charges.

The amount had been paid in three instalments following the findings of a lengthy reconciliation process during which accounts of the provincial government were reconciled with Wapda’s books to determine the actual amount payable by the province and its district governments. The financial squeeze being experienced by the district governments, since their creation two and-a-half-year back, has been described as one major reason for their failure to pay electricity bills.

Differences between the provincial government and some of the district governments on the political front have also been cited by some circles as another major reason behind district governments failure to pay electricity bills. “Though the Provincial Finance Commission award empowers the provincial government to forcefully recover the amount from the district governments that it pays to Wapda on account of their arrears, the provincial government has no intention to go to that extent,” said a finance manager of the province.