HARIPUR: The owners of units in the Hattar industrial estate have threatened to stage a sit-in outside the offices of Peshawar Electric Supply Company if ‘exorbitant taxes’ were not withdrawn from their electricity bills.

The warned was made by the office-bearers of Hattar Industrialists Association while addressing a news conference here the other day.

On the occasion, the association’s general secretary Attaur Rehman said over 480 units in the estate had been providing source of living to 60,000 workers, directly and indirectly, besides contributing billions of rupees in revenue to the national exchequer.

He said the industrialists were unable to pay the electricity bills of August.

He said off-peak rate per unit was Rs17.11, while peak-hour rate was Rs22.91 per unit, which was beside the Fuel Price Adjustment of Rs9.897 per unit and quarterly tariff adjustment of over Rs5 per unit.

Mr Rehman said such heavy taxation and high rates of electricity had forced the industrialists to revisit their plan of continuing production. He said before June 2022, there was a simple formula for consumers having MDI (maximum demand indicator) meters as they were sent bills only for the units consumed, but from June onward, the National Electric Regulatory Authority had changed the policy and started sending bills with 50 per cent of the sanctioned load of even a closed industrial unit.

He also demanded establishment of a sub-office of Pesco in the estate and reviving the policy of bills payment on 28 or 29 of each month.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2022