The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has demanded that the government should ensure its departments pay the dues they owe to power utility.
According to a press release issued on Friday, the KESC has recently disconnected power supply to various defaulting federal and provincial government departments including customs, public health, forest, finance, communication and works and education.
The power utility pointed out that the EDO of elementary education has to pay Rs 47.3 million, while the provincial government’s Directorate of Education owes Rs 25.6 million to the KESC for 144 connections to various schools and colleges.
The KESC asked the education authorities of federal and provincial governments to play their due role in paying the outstanding bills of educational institutions.
The power utility pointed out that the education sector needs to demonstrate exemplary attitude in respect of paying bills on time, so as to educate their students for preparing them as responsible citizens.
In terms of the overall unpaid power dues, the federal government owes Rs 1.66 billion to the KESC, while the provincial government customers’ outstanding amount comes to about Rs 23 billion.
The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board has to pay the largest amount – Rs 15.94 billion – while the city government’s unpaid bills come to Rs 5.18 billion. Other departments and bodies’ outstanding bills amount to Rs 1.56 billion.
The KESC demanded that government departments should support the utility’s drive against bill defaulters and those involved in illegal use of electricity, since the two issues have been causing great hurdles in the way of providing uninterrupted supply of electricity to the city’s population.
Huge outstanding amounts coupled with theft of a little less than a third of the total generated electricity have been the main reasons behind load shedding and the shortfall of cash inflow to pay to fuel providers, adding to the circular debt.
