MULTAN, March 24: The local tehsil administration has urged Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) to reconcile the accounts of the Multan Municipal Corporation (MMC) regarding electricity bills anticipating overcharging by the department.

City tehsil Nazim Mian Faisal Mukhtar told Dawn on Sunday that after taking charge of the corporation in August last, he was surprised to learn that the MMC had to pay Rs195 million outstanding dues of Wapda accumulated since 1995. He claimed it was a huge debt to be returned through the limited MMC resources.

He said he delved deep into the issue to resolve it and learnt that the federal government had not paid MMC its share in the collection of Immovable Property Tax (IPT) for the last six years. He said 15 per cent of the IPT had to be retained by the federal government while 85 per cent was given to the local body.

However, the federal government withdrew dues of the departments like Wapda recoverable from the concerned local body at a certain proportion from its IPT deposits.

The Nazim maintained the corporation consumed electricity worth Rs36 million per annum on an average while Wapda claimed it had to recover Rs195 million from the MMC which showed the corporation did not pay even a penny to the Wapda for the last five years.

He said he had written a letter to the Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) authorities to reconcile the MMC accounts from 1995, adding he also wrote to the federal government to provide details of the IPT account of the MMC vis-a-vis disbursements from it and the amount liable to be paid to the corporation as per its moiety.

‘We expect not only the Wapda dues will be done away with in the reconciliation but the corporation could also secure its lost resources,’ he hoped.