KARACHI, July 9: The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation has expressed delight at a slight decline in transmission and distribution losses, claiming that it has been caused by an effective metering exercise and not by massive power breakdowns that plagued the lives of its consumers over the past two months.

The utility’s Executive Director, Business Operations, Syed Tanzeem Husain Naqvi, attributed the “achievement” to the efficiency of the billing staff and announced the grant of an incentives package for them on Monday.

Mr Naqvi said: “The billing staff enabled the KESC to achieve a substantial reduction of 3.7 per cent T&D losses in the month of May and six per cent in June.” He made no mention of the power supply situation during these two months although the city faced power riots triggered by hours-long breakdowns occurring almost daily during this period.

Mr Naqvi appreciated the billing department, saying that it was the revenue engine of the KESC. He added that the company could not function without a proactive billing department. He commended the efficiency of meter readers, bill distributors, meter inspectors, supervisory staff and managers for their efficiency in increasing the company’s revenues through a strict check on power theft.

Many power consumers have long been complaining of faulty meters and inflated bills and it was reportedly during Mr Naqvi’s tenure as head of the KESC that such complaints had registered a sharp rise.

Congratulating the beneficiaries of the incentives package, Mr Naqvi said that 1.25 per cent of the additional recovery amount would be awarded to the meter readers, 1.5 per cent to the billing staff, 2.5 per cent to the recovery staff and one per cent to the disconnection/reconnection staff.

He emphasised the need for reviewing the consumption and billing record of every consumer on a weekly basis to check power theft.

As against the widely believed claim that the KESC has failed to check power theft through ‘kundas’ (hooks), circles close to the power sector described Mr Naqvi’s appreciation of the staff and the incentives package as a moral boosting exercise.

They referred to the assessment of the KESC’s Divisional Director (Customer Services) Shaikh Jamil Gul who had expressed concern over the ‘zero’ consumption shown on the bills of 0.1 million consumers in the city. Mr Gul wondered that 0.15 million KESC consumers were using electricity between 1 and 20 units and another one million only 300 units a month. The KESC records show that the number of consumers getting bills for 1,000 or more units was just 35,000, according to him.