KARACHI, April 25: Sindh Local Government Minster Muhammad Hussain has said that the offices of the local government representatives and street lights should not be charged commercially for electricity usage as these provided public utility services.

Presiding over a meeting held about TMAs and Hesco dues at his office here on Wednesday, he said it was a general complaint of various TMAs in Sindh that Hesco was charging commercially for street lights while excessive billing was also common, resulting in at-source deduction of these bills.

The minister said that to have accurate figures of electricity utilised, it was essential to install meters for street lights while Nepra would be approached for exempting the social sector from commercial charges and, if possible, would be asked to design a new tariff for this sector.

He asked the government consultant to check the tariff of all TMAs to have a clear picture of the tariff imposed on them by Hesco. He said that in order to clear the outstanding bills, an amount of Rs690 million had been released to TMAs and other local government institutions.

Mohammed Hussain said that these matters would also be discussed at a meeting with the Sindh governor for which he had ordered preparing of a comprehensive working paper.

He said the local government support officers in every district had been directed to coordinate between TMAs and Hesco for the reconciliation of dues and other related matters.—APP