Not having paid the electricity and generator bills worth Rs 5 million, the National Bank of Pakistan inside the Punjab Civil Secretariat has been enjoying government facilities for free for the past four years, Pakistan Today has learnt. Sources privy to the development revealed that as per the terms of the agreement, the government has agreed upon providing them with a building free-of-cost, as these banks open up branches only for the secretariat employees, while the utility bills and expenses for alternative power supply are to be borne by the branch concerned. However, it has been recently found out that the NBP administration has not been paying the electricity dues and the bill for alternate power which has caused a heavy loss to the exchequer. The NBP is one of the two banks situated within the Civil Secretariat, the other being the Bank of Punjab, both dealing with the employees of the Secretariat. However, per detail, the Bank of Punjab has been regularly paying the electricity dues and has set up own power generators and bears the fuel expenses too.
An official, asking not to be named, said the government had estimated Rs 75,000 per month as electricity bill on average, which was also the amount the Bank of Punjab had paid. “The NBP has nine air conditioners and uses government generators too which are estimated to cost Rs 600 to Rs 1000 per hour but the NBP manager refused to receive the government letter regarding the payment of outstanding electricity bill,” the official said. “It is not possible that the NBP administration has not been receiving money against utility heads from the higher authorities…there must be something fishy that the administration is neither paying the dues nor receiving the letter,” the official added.
NBP Branch Manager Sikandar Hayat said he had joined the branch only a few days back and was unaware of any such issue.
He said the previous manager Tanzeem Butt may have been involved in with the issue. “We have got a new electricity metre installed and we will bear our own generators and the fuel expenses,” he said. To a question, he said, “I’ve not received the letter as yet, I can only comment on the past payment after receiving the letter.”
