PESHAWAR, Dec 12: The Tribal Electric Supply Company (Tesco) is introducing a flat rate for domestic consumers in all agencies and Frontier Regions of the Federally Administered Tribal Area, sources say.

Domestic consumers in tribal areas will pay power dues at the flat rates of Rs220 every month. Commercial, industrial, agricultural and government departments will be charged on the basis of power consumed.

An official said that nearly 300,000 domestic consumers in tribal areas would benefit from the new system.

Of the proposed monthly charges, Rs200 would be the actual amount for power consumed and Rs20 would be paid under the head of dues accumulated over the past years.

Earlier, the government had planned to install power meters in Fata, but tribesmen opposed it and refused to pay electricity dues.

In some parts of the tribal agencies, Tesco had installed meters to enhance recovery, from the tribal consumers, but the company and local authorities failed to continue the campaign.

The sources said that Tesco shelved the meter installation campaign and a committee headed by the NWFP chief secretary recommended the flat rate system for Fata.

Senior officials of the Water and Power Development Authority, Tesco and Fata Civil Secretariat are members of the committee.

"Tesco has temporarily suspended the meter installation plan and is considering launching a sensitisation campaign and raising awareness among the tribal people to pay power charges,” said an official.

To implement the flat rate system, political authorities in collaboration with tribal elders would set up village-level committees in every agency, which would look after dues recovery from consumers.

The flat rate was earlier introduced in Fata in early 80s.

Officials said that Tesco claimed Rs62.53 billion outstanding dues against Fata, including government departments and commercial and industrial consumers.

Total volume of the power dues against domestic consumers till November was Rs58.16 billion.

In all seven agencies, Kyhber Agency owes highest outstanding amount of Rs23.91 billion to Tesco followed by the North Waziristan Agency. Dues against consumers in the troubled agency amount to Rs11.69 billion.

The size of outstanding dues against commercial sector is Rs1.27 billion, Rs1.51 billion against industrial sector, Rs1.16 billion against agricultural sector and Rs421 million against government departments in the region bordering Afghanistan.

In the past, the government had adopted another to ensure recovery of power dues from tribal people.

Each tribesman who would buy a bag of 80kg wheat flour had to pay an additional Rs100 for power charges. But, the scheme was dropped after some time.

Tesco claims that it suffered roughly Rs900 million monthly losses in the tribal area, to which tribesmen and officials in civil secretariat said that the figures had been exaggerated.