ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) has sent a notice to the Prime Minister House Complex demanding payment of over Rs99 million which had been accumulated during the tenure of the PML-N government.

“In fact it is a fault at our end that we could not send the correct bill to the PM House for almost five years. Recently, the issue has been pointed out by Iesco, therefore we have sent a fresh notice to the PM House,” Iesco Media Coordinator Raja Asim said while talking to Dawn.

The bill for December 2018 of the PM House is Rs1.53 million. However, it showed Rs99.78 million arrears which have not been paid by the PM office for the last five years.

The bill, which has been circulated on the social media, has triggered a debate whether the pending bill was because of the PML-N government or Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

The bill, available with Dawn, shows that in June 2018 government made excess payment for the electricity bill due to which the bill for July was in negative. However, in August and September the bill was Rs400,000 and Rs1.5 million respectively. The government did not clear the outstanding amount for both months. However, in the month of October and November government paid the dues.

Mr Asim said Iesco provided electricity through one meter and PM Complex distributed that electricity as per its requirement in different wings and parts.

“In 2013, Iesco has changed a panel in the meter due to which the electricity load was increased for PM House but the bill was being sent as per old panel. In October 2018 under the Adjustment # 476 it was pointed out that 6.02 million units of electricity could not be charged due to which arrears of over Rs90 million were sent to the PM House,” he said.

He said the Public Works Department (PWD) cleared the bill on behalf of the government so PWD has been informed about the situation.

“We have been informed that the current bill would be cleared but negotiations would be held regarding arrears. I am sure that the issue would be addressed amicably,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2019