PD official testifies before NA panel ‘Electricity worth Rs380bn is stolen every year’

ISLAMABAD: Power Division Secretary Rashid Mehmood Langrial on Friday testified before the National Assembly Standing Committee that electricity worth Rs380 billion is stolen every year in the country despite anti-theft measures taken by power companies.

Briefing the committee, he said that the impact of Rs520 billion in stolen electricity is estimated to be passed on to the consumers in bills from the next fiscal year. He said hooks worth Rs200 billion and meters worth Rs80 billion were stolen.

According to the power secretary, electricity of Rs5 billion is stolen annually from a grid station in Bannu (KPK). He said the process of FIR on electricity theft has been made complicated. The total financial impact of electricity theft in Pesco was Rs185 billion during the current year.

He said there are firms which offer services to rupture ABC bundle cable. Electricity stealers acquire the services of those firms.

He said sarcastically that the people of Sukkur have the honour to rupture ABC bundle cable as they found this technique.

‘Viable’ energy sector: PD fails to prepare plan

Responding to a question, he said that electricity cannot be cut off from feeders to prevent theft, adding that in case of disconnection of power from feeders, bill payers also be affected. He said meters are being installed in transformers to control theft.

The Power Division secretary further briefed the committee that if loadshedding is not done, there will be a financial burden of Rs220 billion per month. He said a plan is being devised for recovery of theft in Discos. He confided that Discos’ employees are also involved in the theft.

The Standing Committee asked the Power Division to pass on directions to all the Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) and the K-Electric to ensure billing as per meter and not otherwise.

The committee also asked the ministry to submit a report on how to tackle the issue of forced load shedding on electricity feeders by the respective electricity distribution company. The committee met under the chairmanship of Sardar Riaz Mehmood Khan Mazari, MNA, in the Parliament House, this afternoon.

The committee was apprised that the K-Electric was forcibly shutting down various feeders in Karachi on the pretext of non-recovery of electricity bills. The Member of the Committee from Karachi contented that the electricity consumers paying their bills regularly should not suffer at the behest of the electricity “kunda mafia” and habitual defiant consumers.

The committee agreed with the member and opined that issue was pervasive besides being grave and the ministry should look into this and bring a comprehensive report in that regard in the next meeting of the committee.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023