KWSB dues against government departments, others swell to Rs 11 billion

Karachi Water and Sewerage Board's (KWSB) outstanding dues against the federal and provincial governments' departments, besides the industrial areas of the city have reached Rs 11 billion, sources in the board told Business Recorder here on Saturday.
The KWSB is under constant pressure by Karachi Electricity Supply Company (KESC) for payment of Rs 10.8 billion owed by it to the power utility, as the board failed to recover its outstanding. When contacted, Managing Director KWSB Misbahuddin Farid said that the board was not receiving it outstanding amounting to Rs 11 billion from its consumers including the federal and provincial governments departments, besides the major industrial areas.
He said the board was suffering huge revenue shortfall. The electricity bill of the board for the current month is Rs 370 million, whereas the board's total revenue collections stand at Rs 320 million, which depicts a gap of Rs 50 million," he added. "KESC bill will further surge to Rs 410 million for the next month with an increase of Rs 40 million against KWSB," he added.
However, he termed the charges levelled by the KESC as unjustified, saying that Karachi is facing discrimination. He said that industrial cum commercial tariff is charged on the electricity supplied to Karachi, whereas in the rest of the country agriculture tariff is levied that is three time less than the commercial tariff. He said that at present electricity was being supplied at the rate of Rs 14 per unit to the city.
The MD said that Karachi was facing a shortage of 260 million gallons water currently. He said that no subsidy was being given to the KWSB by the government. Misbah also informed that majority of the Karachi residents did not pay their water bills regularly, whereas about 35 percent of the inhabitants residing in Katchi Abadis have never paid bills. He said that several letters and notifications had been sent to the government for payment of dues but to no avail.
He said that a number of the board major projects had come to standstill due to lack of funds. He said that the projects include K-4 project, Greater Sewerage Plan costing Rs 13 billion, Combined Effluent and Treatment Plant costing Rs 7.5 billion and the S-3 project.
Regarding K-4 project he said that this project when completed would solve the city problem of water supply up to 2025 but it was moving at snail's pace. However, he said, the PC-I for the project has been approved by the government. He said that the project would be executed in phases and work on Phase-I would start from 2013 and would cost Rs 30 billion.