CHITRAL: The overbilling by Peshawar Electric Supply Company without carrying out meter-reading has put more than 16,000 consumers in Chitral in a quandary.

To get the inflated power bills rectified, a large number of affected people thronged the local Pesco offices here on Friday.

Talking to Dawn, they complained that thousands of units had been included in the bills for the current month which did not match the readings on the meters.

They said such a practice had been in vogue since long as the company had only two meter readers for such a large number of people.

They said the poor consumers were unable to pay the inflated bills, adding power connections of those failing to pay were disconnected.

They said actual meter readings were far behind the one entered on the bills.

On the occasion, Jughoor village nazim Sajjad Ahmed Khan said the consumers were punished for no fault of theirs.

He said over 80 per cent bills were presumptive and were 1,000 to 5,000 units in advance of the actual readings on the meters, which resulted in higher costs as the rate per unit increased with increase in number of units.

“I know a large number of consumers in my constituency whose actual consumption is 1,000 units behind the one shown in the power bills and they suffered losses of thousands of rupees which they cannot afford,” he explained.

He pointed out that overbilling by power distribution companies had been declared crime by the National Assembly.

MNA-elect from Chitral, Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, when contacted, said he had received hundreds of complaints regarding overbilling and that he would raise the issue at the floor of the house soon after taking oath of office.

He said the Pesco authorities were indifferent to the situation in Chitral where consumers of electricity were subjected to mental torture every month by overbilling and line disconnections subsequently.

Maulana Chitrali said he had gathered hundreds of inflated power bills as proof which he would present to the relevant quarters in Peshawar and Islamabad.

Pesco line superintendant, Junaid Khan, admitted the prevalence of the issue and said that shortage of staff was the reason.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2018