ISLAMABAD: Energy Minister Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari has warned electricity distribution companies (Discos) against imposing excessive or unjustified detection bills, saying no arbitrary charges will be levied on consumers.
Detection bills are issued by Discos to recover past dues estimated to be unpaid due to slow meters, theft or other technical reasons.
At a meeting with Discos’ boards of directors on Friday, the minister issued formal directives to implement a stringent, comprehensive reform framework.
He underlined that while curbing electricity theft remains an unquestionable national priority, arbitrarily burdening innocent citizens will not be tolerated under any circumstances.
Under this framework, the discretionary authority of field staff is being strictly regulated to protect consumers while ensuring that no hurdle is created for honest officers performing their duties against power theft.
In light of the minister’s directives, the Power Division is mandating that all Discos issue detection bills exclusively through the centralised online portal developed by Power Information Technology Company (PITC).
The Power Division has enforced a complete ban on issuing manual and discretionary detection bills by field staff or SDOs. Issuing manual bills will be officially treated as severe misconduct, liable to strict disciplinary proceedings and major penalties against the responsible officials and staff.
Under this framework, comprehensive proposed amendments to the Consumer Service Manual (CSM) will be submitted in the coming days to bind every process within clearly defined timelines.
Under the new framework, replacing defective or burnt meters immediately, or within a maximum of two billing cycles, will be mandatory, and average billing during this period will be restricted to a maximum of two months. In cases where a meter is established to be running slow or fast, recovery or credit adjustments will be confined strictly to the preceding two billing cycles.
Similarly, to bring detection billing under strict regulation, the chargeable period for illegal abstraction by general consumers is proposed to be fixed at three billing cycles.
Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2026
