Dissatisfied with recovery campaign of the distribution companies (DISCOs), the Ministry of Water and Power has convened a meeting, tomorrow (May 28), to assess their performance.
An official source said that the DISCOs had been instructed, a few weeks back, to report daily on their recovery campaign and disconnections but despite passing a few days, no progress was seen. The campaign has only yielded over Rs 2 billion out of total arrears of over Rs 160 billion owed by the defaulters, he added.
The ministry had directed DISCOs take strict measures for recovery of arrears before the end of current fiscal year, the official said adding that DISCOs recovery drive remained futile they failed to cut a substantial number of connections.
Earlier, the Planning Commission had written a letter to the ministry to direct DISCOs to recover longstanding arrears of over Rs 160 billion from defaulters. The commission was concerned over fact that out of total money, over Rs 80 billion dues had been shown as ‘bad debts’ for the last three years.
The official observed that the DISCOs had used the arrears as a ploy to get subsidy from the government and hide their inefficiency.
According to official data, till May 26, the Gujranwala Electric Power Company (GEPCO) made a recovery of Rs 1.72 billion out of its arrears of Rs 6.62 billion. IESCO recovered Rs 350 million out of Rs 9.64 billion. “The IESCO failed to take action against defaulting government departments although the companies had been directed to be strict with them,” the source said.
LESCO made a recovery of Rs 26.4 million and made some disconnections, but still there was lot of room for improvement, he said adding that FESCO made recovery of Rs 15.6 million, HESCO Rs 21.5 million, PESCO Rs 111.5 million and TESCO reported recovery of Rs 75 million.