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KARACHI, June 30: Justice Azizullah M. Memon of the Sindh High Court ordered the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation to restore power supply to an apartment complex on the University Road and then proceed to recover charges from January to June on the basis of previous normal average consumption. The residents and shokeepers of Shumail Complex alleged in a suit instituted by them through Advocate Noor Naz Agha that they were owners in possession of their residential and commercial premises in the complex. They have paid all the charges but the builders and developers were not prepared to execute sub-leases or provide the basic amenities promised by them.
Electricity was initially supplied to their premises through legal hook (‘kunda’) and bills were paid to the KESC through the builders. They paid Rs 3000 each for domestic and Rs 6000 each for commercial meters. The KESC started issuing computerized bills to the consumers individually.
A few months ago, the corporation stopped sending the bills and told them that over Rs 7 million in electricity charges were owed by the project.
The residents’ welfare association took up the matter with the authorities and the KESC agreed to resume issuing bills. The billing finally resumed in earlier this month but the bills were highly inflated. Instead of a few hundred rupees, the amount went up, in certain cases, to Rs 10,000. It seemed that the KESC was trying to recover the dues outstanding against the builders and developers from the purchsers of flats and shops in ‘small monthly instalments’. On consumers’ inability to pay the inflated bills, their power connection was snapped.
CDGK RESTRAINED: A division bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Amir Hani Muslim, meanwhile, restrained the city district government from dismantling signboards put up by petrol pumps of a petitioner company or take other coercive measures to recover the outdoor publicity tax on account of the hoardings installed by them to indicate their presence.
M/s Total Parco of Lahore submitted through Advocate M. Siddique Mirza that it had a chain of petrol pumps in the city. It was operating and paying its dues under and the Petroleum Act, 1934. The Sindh Local Government Ordinance was not applicable to it.
The federal government, the petitioner company’s counsel said, had clarified that all fees and charges payable by petrol pumps were factored in the price formula and no additional levy could be imposed on the pumps. Besides, Advocate Mirza submitted, the hoardings were meant to serve only as indicators to consumers and the CDGK was providing no service to the pumps in return for the fee.
The bench issued a notice to the CDGK for July 5 and restrained it in the meantime.
