The privatisation of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) in 2005 has proved to be a bane than boon as instead of increasing, the power generation of company has reduced by 1.34 billion kWh since then.
The company, which was generating around 9.30 billion kWh in 2005, was generating only 7.96 billion kWh during 2009-2010.
A financial report of the company shows that its power generation per kWh has steadily declined in the last six years after foreign firms took over its management.
The KESC generated 8.26 billion kWh, 8.66 billion kWh, 8.16 billion kWh, 9.13 billion kWh and 9.30 billion kWh during 2008-2009, 2007-2008, 2006-2007, 2005-2006 and 2004-2005, respectively.
Instead of enhancing power generation in accordance with agreements, the Dubai-based firms, which acquired control of the KESC, did nothing but depend on the supply of electricity from sources like WAPDA and independent power producers.
The addition of at least 10 percent electricity was needed every year to meet the ever-increasing demand of the city, sources said. Criticising the KESC’s failure to increase power generation, KESC Shareholders Association General Secretary Choudhary Mazhar Ali in a statement issued on Sunday said that the management of the company has deliberately decreased generation to buy less fuel.
Nine 25 MW gas-operated generating units were decommissioned and their share of the gas was provided to the rental power plant of EGRICO, which charges $ 2.8 million per month for two years for just 50MW of electricity .
“The shareholders believe that heavy kickbacks were received in this deal,” he said.
Ali said that NEPRA has allowed the KESC to increase its tariff four times during the last six months and the power utility is again demanding a hike of Rs 2.2 4 per unit in rates for the quarter ending March 2011.
The company has billed more than two million consumers for 2,132GWh units for this quarter and if the increase is allowed, the company will squeeze more money out of the already overburdened consumers.
“Using its manipulative ways, the KESC will receive a subsidy of more than Rs 30 billion every year on the basis of tariff adjustment. This subsidy prior to the privatisation of the company was only Rs 1.4 billion given by the government on the same basis,” Ali pointed out.
“The company is presently was being run as a private company but its management is neither following the company’s ordinance nor giving importance to NEPRA rules,” he added.
He said that in multi-storey buildings, the electricity of those consumers, who have cleared their dues, is also being disconnected along with the defaulters.
“This has been done at Plastic Plaza in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on May 10,”he added.
He said that the company’s shareholders are not being given any information about the policies of the management and even their written questions are not being answered. “The rules of the Companies Ordinance are being violated and elected directors are paid half a million rupees per month without the proper approval of the ‘general body’ of the company,” he said.
Ali said that top technical posts in the KESC are being held by non-engineers disregarding the Pakistan Engineering Council Act, exposing its system to failure, as has happened in the past for which the company was fined by NEPRA.
He said that more than 5,000 employees have been made redundant although they are being paid their salaries, and in their place, another 5,000 people have been hired on double the wages, inflicting massive financial losses on the company.
