PESHAWAR, July 20: Reconciliation of monthly power bills with Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has helped the NWFP government to bring down its monthly expenditure under this head, sources said on Tuesday.

The province has managed to bring down its monthly electricity bill from about Rs270 million in July, 2003, to Rs163 million in April, 2004. It shows a net monthly saving of about Rs107 million making it possible for the province to bring down the level of its annual expenditure under the electricity head.

Government's documents have attributed the decrease to regular reconciliation of monthly electricity bills being done by Wapda and the special unit - Wapda Cell - established in the NWFP finance department.

The two sides entered into an understanding at the start of the last financial year. They started reconciliation of power bills issued to NWFP's public sector power consumers in an effort to streamline payment of monthly electricity bills by the provincial public sector consumers.

The move was necessitated to put an end to a prolonged dispute between Wapda and the NWFP over the issue of power bills. While Wapda has been accusing the provincial government of not paying monthly electricity bills in time, successive governments of the province have been blaming the power authority for, what they termed, over billing.

Sources in the provincial government said that the reconciliation drive helped the NWFP to establish its stand that it had been subjected to excess billing over the years.

A senior official said: "During the course of reconciliation, it has been established that Wapda recovered about Rs200 million in excess than the amount it should have charged the province."

In addition to that amount, the two sides are in the process of determining the validity of the provincial government's fresh claim of Rs300 million excess payment to Wapda.

However, official record of the provincial government reflects that a major decrease in the monthly electricity bill was recorded in April, 2004, when compared with the bill for March, 2004.

The provincial government, according to its documents, recorded monthly electricity bill of about Rs270 million in July, 2003, Rs236 million in August, Rs251 million in September, Rs239 million in October, Rs248 million in November, Rs258 million in December, Rs229 million in Jan 2004, Rs233 million in February, Rs218 million in March and about Rs163 million in April, last.

The provincial government, said an official, wanted to pursue the policy of reconciling its electric power bills every month to avoid complications the province had been experiencing in the form of accruing arrears.

In addition to avoid piling up of arrears, said the sources, the move would help the province to keep a close check on electric power consumed every month in addition to monitoring its power expenditure.

The exercise, said the source, had not only resulted in bringing down the monthly power bill, it was also expected to help the province save considerable amount it used to pay on account of surcharge for delayed payment of power bills.

"It has been estimated that the timely payment of monthly electricity bills would help the province save approximately Rs250 million every year," maintained a senior official of the provincial government.