KARACHI, Oct 30: Karachi Electric Supply Corporation has made a "miraculous financial turnaround" by persistent efforts and increase in the revenue recovery by 103 per cent , reduction in transmission and distribution (T&D) losses by bringing it down from 41 to 36 per cent during the first quarter of the current financial year.

This was claimed by a KESC spokesman in a statement issued here on Saturday. He said that during the July-September 2004 period, the revenue collection stood at Rs11.52 billion against the target of Rs11.20 billion. The recoveries for 2003-04 were Rs42 billion as against Rs20 billion of 1999-2000, an increase of 110 per cent after the commencement of system improvement plan in July 2003.

The subsidy from the federal government, which was Rs17 billion in 1999-2000, was lowered to Rs9.5 billion by improving the revenue receipts of the corporation during 2003-04, while efforts are on to further slash it to Rs6.8 billion during the current financial year for ensuring profitability in the year 2006-07, the spokesman adds.

"This has been achieved by increasing electricity bill recovery from 80 to 95 per cent last year, looking at the trend for the first quarter of the current year it will increase to 96 per cent by June 2005," the KESC spokesman said.-APP