HYDERABAD, Oct 22: The Sindh government owes Rs30 billion to the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) towards electricity dues, the power utility revealed to Dawn on Monday evening.

Hesco officers privy to its team engaged in negotiations with the government on the bills held a fresh round of talks with the officials concerned during the day and observed that the government was clearing the dues piecemeal and this had resulted in accumulation of the amount to a staggering Rs30 billion.

They said that today’s meeting was scheduled for a response from the government but provincial energy secretary Sohail Rajput appeared to be on a visit to Islamabad.

“We are told to wait for a day to get a reply,” said one of the officials. The Hesco chief executive officer is reported to have already met the finance minister and the secretary to seek an assurance regarding regular payment of bills.

Hesco and the provincial government have been in a row over the amount of the dues for about a year and the matter is currently pending before the Sindh High Court. According to Hesco, the court had asked the government to make the payment against current bills on a regular basis.

Hesco was bifurcated in July 2010 to create the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco), which took over the upper Sindh divisions of Larkana and Sukkur. “There has been 150 per cent increase in power tariff over the past two years and 300 per cent during the past five years. But the Sindh government’s budget for electricity consumption has not gone beyond Rs4 billion, so reasons for power dues are obvious. The Sindh government needs to commensurate its electricity budget with the increasing tariff,” Muzaffar Abbasi, chief executive officer of Hesco, told Dawn over the phone after his meeting in Karachi.

Federal Water and Power Secretary Nargis Sethi during her recent visit to the Hesco headquarters went to the Jamshoro Thermal Power House — being rehabilitated under a USAID-funded programme — emphasised 100 per cent recovery of power dues and called for removal of those officers failing to meet the target.

“Our total dues are close to Rs44 billion of which Rs14.4 billion is outstanding against private consumers,” he said, adding that 86 per cent of the Rs14.4 billion pertained to domestic consumers.

He said that an amount of Rs2.2 billion was outstanding against permanently disconnected connections whereas around Rs1 billion appeared to be the spillover amount billed every month.

Another Rs1 billion was owed by the federal departments, he added.

“The Sindh government needs to allocate Rs12 billion in its electricity budget,” Mr Abbasi said, pointing out that the Punjab government had increased the same.

“While 90 per cent private consumers pay their bills, the provincial government piles up its dues keeping our overall recovery ratio at 50 per cent.

A Hesco source said that Rs30 billion power dues were outstanding against the government since July 2003 and it was trying to clear dues of three power utilities, others being Sepco and the Karachi Electric Supply Company, with its Rs4 billion budget.

Hesco is disconnecting power supply to essential services departments and institutions like Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) to press the government to clear the dues.

It is learnt that the provincial government had paid Rs601 million to get restored 2,350 connections until May 2012 and another amount of Rs1,368 million was paid in August. More than 100 bills amounting to Rs1.3 billion outstanding against Wasa and HDA stand reconciled though only Rs525 million have been paid.

Hesco bills amounting to Rs400 million against 2,350 connections and Rs275 million against 2,195 connections are described as defective ones.