KARACHI, July 9: Even after long-drawn-out negotiations, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) still owes Rs420 million to the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation.

Well-placed sources in the KESC told Dawn that even now the KWSB is paying a small portion of the current bills.

“In May the KWSB owed Rs1.2 billion to the KESC. The water board disputed Rs290 million out of total arrears, saying that a wrong tariff condition had been applied to their bills. It said that because of financial constraints it could not pay up. It added that the Sindh government would pay their bills. But the provincial government also cited financial reasons, saying that it would not pay power bills of the KWSB.”

The sources added that then the KESC had filed a request with the federal government adjuster, ministry of finance, who has the authority to deduct at source, if necessary, the amount payable to provinces. “On the intervention of the federal government adjuster, the KWSB paid Rs700 million. It has yet to pay the remaining amount.”

The KESC sources said that the power utility was having negotiations with the KWSB to resolve the dispute over Rs290 million.

KWSB consumers told Dawn that while the water board was so reluctant to pay the amount it owed to the KESC, it was being unnecessarily strict with those consumers who owed some amount to the KWSB.

Meanwhile, the KESC has netted around Rs1 billion following its recovery drive which was launched on Jan 14.

Speaking at a press conference on Jan 12, the KESC managing director, Brig Tariq Saddozai, had announced that no fewer than 60 KESC recovery teams would disconnect electricity connections of those defaulters who owed more than Rs10,000 to the power utility.

The KESC sources said that according to the plan, power supply of defaulters had been cut off at first. “On payment of 50 per cent of the outstanding amount, the power supply was restored on the condition that the KESC consumer would pay the remaining amount in instalments. That is why it can be safely assumed that Rs1 billion is in the pipeline.”

They added that because of the ongoing recovery campaign, the monthly recovery trend had increased. “Previously, the KESC secovery percentage used to range between 80 per cent and 90 per cent every month. Because of the recovery campaign, the percentage has risen to 104 per cent over the past five months.”