KARACHI: Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power Senator Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan Nasar has sought a detailed report from K-Electric regarding the causes of overbilling.

He was chairing a meeting of the standing committee on water and power here on Friday. The agenda before the committee included items such as ‘massive overbilling in K-Electric’ and the load-shedding schedule in Karachi during summer 2017.

Later, speaking to the media, Sen Nasar observed that K-Electric could not come up with a “satisfactory reply regarding the reasons for the overbilling”. He said the standing committee of the Senate asked K-Electric to come up with a detailed report on overbilling as well as on various other matters at the next meeting.

Sen Nasar said that a detailed discussion was held with the representatives of K-Electric regarding overbilling and the duration of load-shedding in the metropolis.

“We want to solve this problem,” he said, adding that the Senate body heard the K-Electric on this matter.

He said the committee also raised the point before the officials of K-Electric that without the “connivance of the staffers of the organisation, there could be no power theft and overbilling. We also asked if any punishment had been given to anyone in this connection.”

Briefing about load-shedding, the chief executive officer of K-Electric Tayyab Tareen said that maximum load-shedding of seven and a half hours was being carried out in high-loss areas of Karachi.

He said that the city’s power demand last summer had reached up to 3,200 megawatts. On Thursday, he added, the overall power demand was 2,900 megawatts against the power generation to the tune of 2,400 megawatts.

A member pointed out that in view of the commencement of SSC examinations in the city, a strategy be chalked out to ensure that there would be no power load-shedding during the exams.

The K-Electric official told the Senate body that they were in touch with the officials of the Board of Secondary Education Karachi and the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi and would consider this demand.

While presenting problems before the committee, Chairman of the KESC’s Labour Union Mohammad Ikhlaq Khan maintained that retrenchment was being carried out in the power utility.

The chairman of the committee asked the K-Electric officials to also explain this in the next meeting.

Meanwhile, K-Electric reiterated that ‘billing is done as per regulatory guidelines’.

It said that the power utility remained fully committed to its vision statement of ‘Energising Karachi’ while serving over 25 million residents of the city and its adjoining areas. “Bills are generated as per consumers’ meter reading and regulatory guidelines and processes,” the KE official added.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2017