KARACHI: The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has cut off hundreds of gas connections of defaulting customers in a bid to recover massive outstanding dues of Rs79 billion.

Majority of these defaulters have already been disconnected whereas hundreds of disconnections are being conducted on daily basis, SSSG said in a statement.

The company has also decided to go public with the names of these defaulters through media under six major customer categories i.e. industrial-bulk, industrial, government, bulk, commercial and domestic.

Listed below are the top 5 defaulting customers of each of above mentioned six customer categories:

SSGC has to recover a total Rs64.6bn from industrial bulk consumers in which top five prominent defaulters are KESC (Rs46bn), WAPDA (Rs3.2bn), Pakistan Steel (Rs13.4bn), DHA Desalination Plant, Karachi (Rs1.168bn) and Habibullah Coastal Power, Balochistan (Rs 713 million).

Total outstanding on industrial consumers stood at Rs328m in which top five defaulters are Colourital (Pvt) Ltd, Karachi, (Rs90.5m), Dewan Textiles, Hyderabad (Rs86.3m), Afroze Textile Industries, Karachi (Rs72m), Bhittai CNG Station, Karachi (Rs44m) and Dewan Mushtaq Textiles, Hyderabad (Rs34.2m).

The total outstanding on government customers is Rs56.6m in which top five defaulters were Bolan Medical Complex, Quetta (Rs20m), Sandaman Civil Hospital, Quetta (Rs11.5m), University of Karachi (Rs8.9m), Superintendent District Jail, Quetta (Rs8.9m) and Sheikh Zaid Women Hospital, Larkana (Rs7.2m).

In bulk customer category, the total outstanding comes to Rs33.2m in which five top defaulters included Fazal Textiles, Hyderabad (Rs11.57m), Superintendent Central Prison, Hyderabad (Rs11.53m), Residence Colony Paramount Spinning Mills, Kotri, (Rs4m), Barrage Colony, Tando M. Khan (Rs3.27) and ATF Complex, Eastern By-pass Road, Quetta (Rs2.8m).

The total outstanding amount in the category of commercial customers is Rs16.7m which included top defaulters like Deedar Hussain Janwiri, Larkana (Rs6m), Abdul Farooq, Hyderabad (Rs3.6m), Zulfiqar Ali Mawa Bathi, Nawabshah (Rs2.8m), Muhammad Khan, Karachi (Rs2.2m) and Madina Al-Sadaat Hotel, Karachi (Rs2m).

With total outstanding amount in domestic customers category stands at Rs14.17m, the names of top five defaulters are Abdul Latif, House # R-32, Shah Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz Colony, Sector 16-A, North Karachi (Rs3.1m), Rais Ahmad, House # R-1, ST-21/1, Sector 16-A, North Karachi (Rs3.05m), Muhammad Kazim, Tawas Khan Lane # 13, Baloch Khan Chowk, Muhallah Salam Road, Quetta (Rs3m), Hafiz Nazar Muhammad, Village Ali Abad, Bakrani Taluka, Dokri (Rs2.5m) and Abdul Gafar Unar, Village Ali Abad, Bakrani Takula, Dokri (Rs2.46m).

SSGC spokesperson said the company continuously strived to tap the defaulting customers specially those owing huge amounts to the utility.