LAHORE: As public sector institutions owe Rs6 billion in electricity bills to the Lahore Electric Supply Company, it has decided to soon launch a massive crackdown on all such defaulters by suspending their power supply and removing the meters, besides taking the departmental heads on board in a bid to recover the outstanding dues.

“Though the Lesco teams are already after the private as well as public sector entities, it is high time to take some extra measures in this regard, since the default amount is increasing fast due to non-payment of bills. At present, the Punjab and federal government departments are to pay Rs4.5bn and Rs1.5bn, respectively,” a senior Lesco official told Dawn on Thursday.

“The major defaulters include zonal administrations (formerly town municipal administrations), municipal, town committees, the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and various provincial and federal departments,” he added.

Some months ago, Lesco had vigorously launched a campaign against all sorts of defaulters in a bid to recover the bills worth billions of rupees. However, the drive couldn’t sustain for long despite disconnection of power supply to many consumers, including the Kot Lakhpat Jail. Similarly, the monthly bills of TMAs, Wasa and other institutions continued piling up, either due to disinterest on the part of officials or non-cooperation from the government defaulters.

Wasa fears disruption of tube-well operations

“Since it is a matter of grave concern, the top Lesco officials have given a free hand to all field formations (subdivisions, divisions and circles) to go to any extent for recovery of the bills from government departments. They have been asked to better disconnect the supply, besides removing the [defaulter’s] meters,” the official said.

The Lesco administration has also decided to take up such issues with the top officials [chief secretary, secretaries, managing directors, chief executive officers etc] so as to recover the bills at the earliest.

On the other hand, the major public sector consumers, especially Wasa, are gradually becoming unable to clear their monthly bills on time due to various issues, including suspension of annual and monthly subsidies and poor recovery from the water users. Moreover, with change of tariff, it has become more difficult for Wasa to pay the bills at the increased rate of Rs8 per unit.

“Since we were already facing financial issues, the increase in tariff (with effect from March/April) may hit our tube-well operations this summer. Approximately, Wasa will have to bear Rs160 million additionally per month due to change of tariff,” said a Wasa official. However, he claimed, Wasa administration would ensure timely clearance of Lesco bills.

According to another Lesco official, teams have been constituted at circle and division levels for recovery of bills from public and private defaulters. “They [officials] have been asked to accelerate efforts for recovery of bills from all defaulters,” he maintained.

He said that to avoid technical losses, Lesco had installed 200 new 11kV feeders. Lesco CEO, spokespersons were not available for comments.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2019