PESHAWAR, Feb 27: Wapda has conceded it had been overcharging some public sector electricity consumers in the Frontier province, according to official sources.

During the course of a recently carried out reconciliation of accounts of payments made by the provincial public sector electricity consumers and the monthly electricity bills forwarded to them by Wapda it was established that the utility overcharged about Rs100 million to public sector consumers of the district governments of Abbottabad, Charsadda, Mardan and Karak.

"The utility," said an official source "has conceded the mistake and agreed to credit the amount to the account of the district governments concerned". Wapda and the provincial government are currently engaged in an exercise to reconcile their accounts in an effort to resolve the disputed issue.

While the provincial government has been accusing Wapda of excess billing, Wapda has been complaining against non-payment of its electricity dues and irregular payment of its monthly electricity bills by the provincial public sector consumers.

According to official sources, the provincial government owes Rs950 million to Wapda in electricity arrears. The provincial government's departments were recently forced by the provincial chief secretary to engage Wapda and reconcile their accounts to find an amicable solution to the issue.

"The two sides were satisfied with the outcome of the reconciliation drive, and it was agreed that the process would be pursued in other districts as well," said the source.

The chief executive of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), said the source, had also hinted at crediting the amount (found overcharged) to the accounts of the district governments concerned and the same would be adjusted against the electricity expenses in the months to come.

During the course of reconciliation of accounts, said the official source, it was found that tubewells, streetlights, irrigation schemes, hospitals and some other provincial and district level public sector electricity consumers were victims of excess billing.

"Despite the fact that Pesco chief has directed the billing authorities concerned to make correct bills and not to resort to excess billing, in some of the cases it was found that even his instructions were not heeded to," said an other official source.

The provincial government, said the sources, was expected to recruit staff to strengthen its recently established special cell to pursue the reconciliation drive in a more effective manner.

Solution to the long pending issue, said a source, had become all the more necessary for the provincial government for it had been suffering huge financial losses due to excessive billing and once a prudent system was established to ensure timely payment of electricity bills the government would certainly make considerable saving.

Due to non-payment of electricity bills because of disputes with Wapda, said the source, the provincial government was incurring extra financial burden on account of surcharge and additional surcharge. "The reconciliation drive is more essential for the provincial government in view of the paucity of funds being experienced by it for the last several months," said the source.