MUZAFFARABAD, Feb 10: The AJK Electricity Department has rejected Wapda’s figures regarding the outstanding power dues against it, maintaining that the authority had no justification to disconnect power supply to Azad Kashmir until the settlement of the bulk tariff issue by a high-powered committee constituted by the President of Pakistan.

“There is no justification to disconnect power supply to any of the areas of Azad Kashmir in the name of non-payment of arrears which we have already questioned at the appropriate level,” Iqbal Mohiuddin, chief engineer AJK electricity department told Dawn here on Sunday.

His comments were sought by this correspondent on the statement of Brig Waseem Zafar, chief executive Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (Iesco), which appeared in this paper’s Sunday’s issue, in which he had stated that AJK’s outstanding dues were Rs1.9 billion and the power supply to it from Mangla would be disconnected at 10am on Monday, plunging the southern Mirpur, Bhimbher, Kotli, Poonch, Sudhnoti and Bagh districts into darkness.

When asked why Muzaffarabad, the AJK capital, was being spared, Brig Zafar had said it did not fall under Iesco’s jurisdiction because it was getting power supply from Peshawar Electricity Supply Company.

“Wapda has been arbitrarily increasing the bulk tariff for Azad Kashmir since long and the arrears claimed by it are the outcome of that one-sided raise,” Mr Mohiuddin said, while confirming the receipt of notices from both Iesco and Pesco for disconnection.

He said the bulk tariff for Azad Kashmir was fixed at Rs1.16 per unit by the federal cabinet up to Feb 28, 2000. From onwards, Rs2.32 per unit was finally approved by the chief executive of Pakistan to be paid by the AJK government and 92 paisa to be paid by the federal ministry of finance. The CE also waived all the arrears against the AJK electricity department accumulated till Dec 1998, he added.

“We are making payments to Wapda regularly at the rate of Rs2.32 per unit from March 2000 and by the end of Dec 2001 there has been an excess payment of Rs48 million on our part,” he said.

“Even in January, we have paid Rs200 million to Wapda.”

On the contrary, the chief engineer said, the Wapda had been charging on its own Rs3.24 per unit since July 1997. In September 2000, it unilaterally raised the tariff to Rs3.37 per unit, in December 2000 to Rs3.46, in March 2001 to Rs3.66 and finally in November 2001 to Rs3.77, excluding the 15 per cent GST.

“Interestingly, the GST which we collect from the consumers here is reimbursed by us to the AJK Excise and Taxation Department on monthly basis, and there is no justification for Wapda to charge GST from AJK on bulk tariff,” the chief engineer said.

“In view of this situation, I have nothing to say but that the arrears worked out by Wapda are on the basis of these arbitrary raises, which in November have gone as high as Rs4.34 per unit,” he said.

To sort out the issue of AJK’s bulk tariff, Mr Mohiuddin said, President Gen Pervez Musharraf had constituted a committee in August last year under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Kashmir and Northern Areas (KANA), including federal secretaries for finance and water and power and chief secretary of Azad Kashmir as members.

That committee formed a sub-committee, headed by secretary KANA and including as members the federal secretary for water and power and AJK secretary for finance, which has so far held four or five meetings.

“The sub-committee is yet to give its recommendations to Minister KANA, who will submit his report to the President for final decision,” he said.

“Unless the issue is settled by the competent authority, it is unfair on the part of Wapda to charge Azad Kashmir enhanced rates and threaten to disconnect our power supply,” he said.

Stating that the average sale price of the AJK Electricity Department was Rs2.12 per unit during the last financial year, the chief engineer maintained that since AJK government was bearing all expenditures on the establishment and maintenance of the distribution network from its own resources, its power tariff should be fixed on the basis of “no profit no loss.”