Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said overbilling by power distribution companies (Discos) was unacceptable and ordered that the installation of smart meters be completed as soon as possible to ensure transparency.

In February, a four-member independent inquiry committee on ‘Abject Failure — Illegal Overbilling’ confirmed overcharging allegations made by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) against all Discos across the country but absolved them of “deliberate and mala fide” fleecing.

In April, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi made it clear that overbilling would not be tolerated under any circumstances. The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Energy (Power Division) had also expressed grave concern over rising overbilling complaints in August.

The directives were issued today as the premier chaired a review meeting on the performance of Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fescp), a press release from the PM Office Media Wing said.

During the meeting, PM Shehbaz termed overbilling unacceptable, stating that strict action would be taken against officers involved in such practices.

He expressed concern over the delay in the appointment process of Discos’ chief executive officers (CEOs) and directed to ensure that the appointments were made at the earliest through a highly transparent process.

“Recruitment of workforce in distribution companies should be merit-based, with no compromise on transparency,” the prime minister asserted.

Meanwhile, the meeting was apprised of the progress of smart meters’ installation as well.

The advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meters, also known as smart meters, automatically transfer the reading data to the control room (main server) on the exact meter reading date and time, enabling the officials to quickly process and send bills to the consumers.

Since the system also allows Discos to receive and check readings on a daily basis, it minimises the chances of corruption (overbilling, tampering, etc) by ending the obsolete manual reading system.

Pesco took the top spot for the installation rate, with 51,173 installed out of 152,559 smart meters, according to figures reported by state-run APP.

Out of 223,365 three-phase smart meters, 49,470 had been installed by Lesco. Fesco had only installed 11,276 out of 192,311 smart meters.

PM Shehbaz also said all available resources should be utilised to meet the targets set by Nepra.

According to a detailed briefing on the achievement of targets, recovery rates up to November of the current fiscal year (FY 2024-25) were reported as 96.82 per cent for Lesco, 87.98pc for Pesco and 97.57pc for Fesco.

Transmission and distribution losses (up to November of FY 2024-25) remained at 13.04pc for Lesco, 33pc for Pesco and 6.01pc for Fesco.

Minister for Economic Affairs Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Power Division Awais Khan Leghari, Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Ali Pervez Malik, PM’s Coordinator Rana Ahsan Afzal, and other senior government officials attended the meeting.