PESHAWAR, Jan 13: The recently undertaken drive to reconcile figures of electricity bills and payments made against them by the district governments during the last financial year and before that is likely to remain futile, apprehended official sources.

“The exercise is likely to end up without yielding positive results as far as district governments’ grievances towards Wapda are concerned,” said an official of the Peshawar city district government.

Sources in the provincial bureaucracy, when contacted, also expressed similar apprehensions saying that the process was not likely to resolve issues between Wapda and the provincial government’s departments, their attached wings and the district governments.

“No one from among the authorities of the provincial government departments and Wapda representatives are taking the process seriously,” said a well-placed official of the provincial government involved in the exercise.

During the last financial year Wapda deducted at source an amount of Rs585.5m from the NWFP government’s funds to recover electricity arrears it (Wapda) had laid claim against 22 district governments out of the total 24 in the NWFP.

The amount deducted by the NWFP government would now be recovered from the district governments concerned in line with a decision of the provincial government making the already resource constraints hit district governments and their town committees to face the music.

“We have already taken a loan of Rs7.7m to pay our staffers’s salaries for the month of January, hence, any further deduction would leave us in no position to meet even our most essential budgetary requirements in the months to come, “ said Haroon Bilour, Nazim of the Peshawar city district’s Town-1.

Of the total amount deducted from the NWFP government against the district governments’ electricity arrears during the last financial year, major amount of Rs387m pertained to the Peshawar city district’s Town-1 — comprising majority of the area previously falling under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation, Peshawar.

Talking to Dawn Bilour said about Rs387m Wapda deducted at source from the NWFP government against electricity arrears payable by the Peshawar city district’s Town-1.

“Through an official letter dated June 3, 2002, Wapda informed us (Town-1 administration) that we paid them Rs15m in excess,” said Bilour, adding “now all of a sudden we have been told by the provincial government that a sum of Rs387m was deducted by Wapda against our arrears”.

Rejecting Wapda’s stand he said as a result of a previously done reconciliation between Wapda and the now abandoned Municipal Corporation, Peshawar (MCP), the former had waived Rs210m out of the total Rs400m arrears’ claim lodged against the latter in 1998.

The remaining of the Rs190m MCP’s arrears, claimed Bilour, was paid by the provincial government by making book adjustments against the MCP’s Urban Immovable Property (UIP) tax.

“The Rs120m UIP tax share of MCP was then diverted by the then provincial government to Wapda against the electricity arrears recoverable from the MCP — the present day’s Town-1 committee,” said Bilour.

According to him, a committee involving representatives of the town municipal administration, Peshawar City District Government, provincial finance department and Wapda is working to reconcile figures of electricity bills and payments made against them by the now abandoned MCP and other institutions of the Peshawar district government.

In this respect, the provincial finance department, added Bilour, would also provide Town-1 administration figures of UIP paid to the now abandoned MCP helping the new entity (town-1) to know how much of the amount (of UIP) was diverted to Wapda against the pending arrears.

The Nazim-i-Aala of the Peshawar City District Government, Azam Afridi, told this scribe, that the issues between Wapda and Town- 1 administration were in the process of resolution through reconciliation of figures.

He hoped the issue would be resolved in the favour of Town-1 administration.