Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali said on Saturday that the government through continuous and effective measures had increased electricity transmission capacity across the country by 2,800MW – from 13,500MW to 16,300MW – and it would further scale it up to 20,000MW by the end of next year.
In a media briefing at the WAPDA House, he said the government had also stretched 1500km-long new transmission lines besides setting up of new and upgrading some of the existing grid stations in the country. He added that this would not only help overcome low-voltage problems but also end load shedding by the end of 2017.
To a question, the minister said they were addressing the issue of over-billing. A new mechanism of printing meter-reading picture on the bill was being introduced while consumers would also get an SMS about meter-reading, he said. These measures would curb over-billing as well as figure- out the corrupt officials at low level in the distribution companies.
To another question, Abid Sher said efforts were also being put in place to improve recoveries besides giving incentive package and “we will go to every level for this purpose.”
He added the Sindh government’s Rs 69 billion recovery was receivable, HESCO (Hyderabad) and SEPCO (Sukkur) Rs 70 billion, PESCO (Peshawar) Rs 90 billion, QESCO (Quetta) Rs 148 billion, AJK Rs 48 billion and FATA has to pay Rs 49 billion.
Abid Sher said electricity worth billions of rupees was being stolen across Pakistan, asserting that PESCO’s 600 feeders were running in loss and its 110 feeders were making up 85 percent losses. Similarly, there were law and order issues in QESCO domain, while all the four distribution companies (DISCOs) in Punjab (Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Multan) and Islamabad’s (IESCO) accumulative losses remained at only 14 percent, he said.
