HYDERABAD, Nov: 30: Sindh local government secretary Arif Azeem has asked the DCOs to get Hesco dues against government organizations and local councils cleared in shortest possible time.

He issued the directive in a meeting held here on Saturday to discuss ways of payment of Hesco dues against government departments and local councils.

Hesco chief executive Tariq Arshad, Hyderabad district Nazim Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman, the DCOs from all over Sindh (except Karachi) and officers of the provincial local government and finance departments attended the meeting.

Azeem said that the Sindh government was not supposed to pay the liabilities of the departments after clearing them up to June 30, 2001, and the departments concerned were responsible to pay the liabilities from the funds allocated to them for this purpose.

He said that if government departments and local councils continued to fail to pay electricity bills / dues, the proposal of deduction at source would be implemented.

The Hesco chief executive said that the payment from government departments was being received sooner or later but the payment from the local councils was not being made.

Due to this, he said, Rs139 million dues had been accumulated against several local councils.

Referring to the financial difficulties being faced by the local councils, district Nazim Rafiquzzaman said that until funds were provided to local councils by the provincial and the federal government, the local councils would not be able to even pay salary to their employees.

Azim informed that an amount of Rs550 million was being released by the federal government every month for the local councils of Sindh in lieu of octori/district tax.

He said that the local councils, after payment of salary to their employees, could spare some portion of the amount to clear electricity dues.

Besides, he advised the local councils administration to adopt other methods, like reducing power consumption, improving tax collection system, exploring new taxes and reducing non-development expenditure, for better financial management.

Regarding complaints against Hesco officials, he said that joint reading system had been introduced, specially in the major consumer organizations, and assured that it would be encouraged at the district government and the government department level to avoid misunderstanding over metre reading.

The Hesco chief executive said that reconciliation of bills would only be made if defective metres were detected.