Rejecting the “false” claim of shortage of funds at the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) for not paying its electricity bills, the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) on Monday pointed out that the government has already provided a separate fund to the board for the purpose but the money is being misused on other pretexts.
Referring to the recent “propaganda campaign” launched by the KWSB chief in the media, the power utility termed it a cover up for the board’s own errors and defaults, stating that the KWSB is a public service utility but it does not give it the right to extort money and exploit this important task for blackmailing purposes.
The KESC claimed that last year, the KWSB was provided a huge amount of Rs 3.5 billion by the government to settle the electricity dues, but its management did not pay the bills but diverted the money to other areas to benefit certain individuals. “This year too, the board has been extorting quite huge funds but has not been paying its power bills,” it was said.
Every month, the water board extorts huge funds from the government on the pretext of paying power bills but then misuses the money. The recent propaganda campaign and threats of water scarcity by the KWSB managing director are part of another such attempt that would obviously end with the government releasing emergency funds for power dues but that could also go waste as it has so many times in the past if its transactions were not strictly monitored.
Apart from the special emergency funds, it was a clear responsibility of the KWSB to recover its monthly bills from the general water consumers. Failure of doing so was not as simple as the board chief would like the world to believe and the water board had never undertaken serious recovery efforts. It seems that the KWSB officials have been ignoring bill recovery job under a “well thought and pre-planned policy” to extort emergency funds.
The KESC further said that the water board management needs to spare the already-pressed citizens from its dirty politics and extortion games with government funds and avoid using blackmailing tactics and negative media campaigns as well as start paying its power bills without delays on regular basis.
“For a long time, the KESC has been exercising a lenient attitude towards the recurring bill defaults of the KWSB, but after the dues had crossed the Rs 17 billion mark, it has become impossible for the KESC in view of its own financial debts and drop in power generation that arose because of shortage of cash inflow as well as natural gas to continue such informal arrangements without end,” it was claimed in the statement.
The KESC demanded that government take extra precautions while giving any funds to the KWSB and make sure that the money was used properly where it is intended.
Pointing out the recent Supreme Court judgment in the rental power projects case, the KESC spokesman pointed out that the apex court had directed all government functionaries to act in accordance with the law in an open and transparent manner and immediately take steps to reduce the circular debt burden on power utility companies.
It was also pointed out that the KWSB had already knocked on the doors of the Sindh High Court and obtained an order dated February 27, 2012 to deposit Rs 1 Billion in cash with the Nazir of the Court as well as Rs 4 Billion bank securities. But the KWSB had intentionally defaulted with compliance of the same and was in breach of the said order.
The case is still pending before the Sindh High Court, yet the KWSB had launched a vicious propaganda campaign against KESC and has even taken the step of writing to the federal government to contest any payments being made directly by the federal government to KESC in respect of KWSB dues, which was contrary to norms of good governance and transparency.
