Irrespective of ever-increasing power tariff loaded with heavy taxes and surcharges, the billing of LESCO leaves much to be desired in all fairness.
I have before me two bills of domestic consumers of one house of one locality in E Block Jauhur Town Lahore which have been billed under different power tariffs raising a big question mark on the faulty performance of LESCO and giving lot of inconvenience to the poor consumers who are unable to understand all this figure work.
One bill for 939 units has been billed at Rs 9.500 per unit at NEPRA tariff for 797 units amounting to Rs 7571.50 and at Rs 15.00 per unit for remaining 142 units amounting to Rs 2130.00 totalling Rs 7555.81 plus with taxes and surcharges amounting to Rs 5717.19 pushing to payable total bill exaggeratingly to Rs 13,273.00.
Second bill for 545 units has been billed at Rs 11.000 per unit for 300 units amounting to Rs 3060.00 and at Rs 13.330 per unit for remaining 245 units amounting to Rs 3,265.85 raising the total to Rs 6,927.00 with a somewhat subsidy of Rs 1,715.11 reducing amount to Rs 4,611.11 and pushing total payable amount to Rs 6,727.00 with addition of Rs 2,315.89 as taxes and surcharges,.
Taxes and surcharges besides TV fee which every consumer is paying every month, most unwillingly per force, are Excise Duty, General Sales Tax (GST), Neelum Jhelum Hydroelectric Power plant, FC. Surcharge and TR Surcharge. Both these FC Surcharge and TR Surcharge are quite mysteriously not known and no information either is available from LESCO officials and quite regretfully TR Surcharge is the HEAVIEST of all in four figures mostly .Electricity bills are based on higher the bill higher the taxes and surcharges formula.
Prior to the announcement of the new federal budget for financial year 2017-18, the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had hinted at giving relief to the people by and large in the utility bills. But, somehow, no relief was provided even by withdrawing these heavy taxes and surcharges whose origin remains mysterious al always. Now, this to request new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to sympathetically consider this matter of humanitarian grounds curtail avoidable un-essential non-development expenses of the federal government and reduce this extra burden on the domestic consumers in the painful format of taxes and surcharges, couple of which are even not understandable, to the maximum extent possible. Extra burden of taxes and surcharges to about 40 per cent is just unbearable and intolerable.
MOMINA BILAL
Lahore
