The millions of people who pay billions of rupees monthly to government and power companies are being billed through uncertified electricity reading meters. Despite being enlisted in the compulsory items to be certified by Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), the millions of power reading meters installed across the country are uncertified as the authority is yet to have the facility to test the electronic device, sources told Pakistan Today.
According to sources, though many other electronic items are already being tested and certified by the authority the meters are yet to be certified despite of being the compulsory item since 2007.
Despite the huge complains about fast and faulty meters registered by the crisis hit consumers across the country, the government was not paying heed to the problem while allowing the power generating/supplying companies/institutions to install uncertified meters.
Though the local manufacturers of the electric device claim producing the qualitative and standardized products in the country there was no check on the part of the government through the concerned authority. Besides WAPDA/PEPCO, Gencos and private electricity generating/supplying companies were depending their own tests and fixed standards while purchasing the devices from manufactures.
On the other hand thousands of consumers who are mostly skeptical about the standard of these meters alleging that they were fast and faulty, have not third institution/authority to test the devices but rely on the reports and test made by the power generating/supplying companies. The consumers, who are mainly unaware of the technical complexities of the devices, were not being satisfied by the power suppliers who were charging huge tariffs against the consumed unites shown by these meters. Interestingly, the consumers who are facing the cases like power theft and meter tempering cases made by the electricity suppliers have also no options like third party testing authority or others options to test the device but to go to courts and private laborites to see whether the device was faulty/tempered/fast and bearing other technical faults. The official sources at PSQCA confirmed that the electricity meters were already notified by the government in 2007 as compulsory items but it was yet to be certified by the authority as it lacks the required equipments and laborites.
However, the authority has so far completed the PC-1 for the facility while arrangements were being made to purchase the required equipments to test the meters installed in the country. The authority, they claimed, was already certifying many electronic items including bulbs, tube lights, energy savers, wires and others.