Govt of Sindh withholds Rs13.2b of HESCO

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Water and Power was informed on Friday that the government of Sindh was withholding payment of Rs13.2 billion to Hyderabad Electric Power Company (HESCO) which it had agreed to pay to the company on a court order.
The meeting of the committee was held under the chairmanship of Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah. Managing Director of HESCO Muzaffar Ali Abassi said that the company was providing power to 28,000 offices of government of Sindh but was not receiving any payment since 2005. He said that the government of Sindh has made a payment of Rs6.8 billion out of the Rs20 billion which it acceded in court were healthy bills.
He also complained that despite registering 650 FIR with police no action was taken against the electricity thieves. He said the company had made a recovery of 88.2 per cent from the private consumers during the last fiscal year. MD HESCO said steps were under way to curb power theft and a new system was under plan with the assistance of World Bank and USAID to eliminate kundas. Bilal Yasin of PML-N said that the committee had held 22 meetings during the last three and a half years but instead of moving forward the progress is stalled at the same level.