PESHAWAR, March 23: The provincial authorities concerned are investigating instances in which Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) charged for electricity 'supply' against some of the closed down development schemes, Dawn learnt on good authority.
During the preparation made regarding the reconciliation of accounts of the district governments of Peshawar, Karak, Abbottabad, Lakki Marwat and Mansehra, the provincial and districts' authorities concerned detected some of the closed schemes against which the provincial government was charged for electricity 'supply'.
Though the exact number of such schemes has not yet been known, said the source, majority of the same category of schemes pertained to water supply schemes falling under the jurisdiction of the physical health and engineering department.
"There are several tubewells and irrigation schemes which are not functional since long but they have continuously been sent electricity bills by the local Wapda authorities," said the source.
The provincial authorities concerned, they said, had decided to conduct similar exercises in other districts to identify such electricity connections against which Wapda kept charging power charges despite discontinuation of the schemes long ago.
"It is an area which has recently come to our knowledge," said an official of the provincial government. The sources said the record of the district governments gone through for reconciling accounts by the provincial authorities pertained to the last couple of years.
The provincial exchequer, they added, was believed to have experienced sufficient financial losses because of making payment of electricity charges against the closed down schemes.
The exact amount of losses incurred in this way would be hard to know at present, said the sources, as it would take a Herculean effort to establish the magnitude of the financial losses and the number of such schemes across the province.
This difficult job, they added, would be done by the provincial government's Wapda Cell established recently to supervise reconciliation of accounts between the district governments and Wapda.
They said the district governments were working, in line with the guidelines of the provincial government's Wapda cell, to identify such schemes which were closed but charged for electricity 'supply' by Wapda.
During the course of a recently carried out reconciliation of accounts between Wapda and three of the NWFP districts, it was found that the utility charged a collective amount of over Rs100 million through excess billing.
Under an understanding reached between the provincial government and Wapda's local bosses, the utility would adjust the said amount against the district governments' concerned in the months to come.