The sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power has directed the officials of Finance to give complete details of billion of rupees wavier given to Karachi Electric Company Limited (KESC) from 2005-08.
The committee also asked the officials of the ministry of water and power to provide record that why initial agreement of privatization of Karachi Stock Exchange Company (KESC) was amended in 2009 and under which conditions this agreement of 2005 was amended in 2009.
The sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on water and power met here on Thursday with Senator Shahi Syed in the chair and annoyed the poor performance of KESC which has been failed to facilitate the consumers. Committee said that on one side KESC is taking electricity at subsidies rates from the national grid and on the other side it is also taking extra charges from the poor consumers. The committee raised the issue of millions of rupees wavier given to the KESC by the federal government and asked that under whose directions National Bank of Pakistan and United Bank limited given guarantees for it. Officials of the Finance remained failed to respond the queries of the senators that was resented the legislative body and directed them to give complete details in next meeting.
Senator Humayun Mandokhel said that in a bid to wave off billion of rupees for KESC the whole agreement was amended and foreign company was given benefit through it.
Officials informed that all this done after directions of economic coordination committee of the cabinet and agreement was in national interests.
Sub-committee asked the officials to give names of members of ECC and minutes of the ECC meetings in which it was decided to amend the agreement of privatization of KESC. They also asked to give details that how much KESC is generating from its own resources and how much it is getting from national grid.
Senator Nisar Muhammad asked that either mechanism has been adopted in power purchase agreement between NTDC and KESC to award penalty to the KESC in case of any violation. NTDC officials informed that no such mechanism has been devised in the agreement.
Humayun Mandokhel said that committee is strongly concerned about amendments done in the agreement through which wavier was given to KESC, adding that it is the basic thing. He said that when Al Jummaiah was defaulted then why KESC was further given to Abraj Company and why privatization commission remained silent spectator of the situation.
Convener of the committee senator Shahi Syed directed to give details that from 2005-08 how much payments made to KESC and under which conditions while how much amount is in balance? He said that children of political personalities have been accommodated at attractive salaries in the KESC therefore politicians are silent over it. this situation resulted into loss for the KESC that is beyond our understating however now time has come when we have to stop this loss, Shahi Syed added. He said KESC is collecting TV fee from mosques but they did not paid the amount to PTV so far.
During the meeting officials of SSGCL informed the committee that Rs 46.6 billion are outstanding till February 2013 by KESC and SSGCL is providing 170mmcfd gas to the company.
