South-Punjab industry exempted from loadshedding: MEPCO

Meeting an outstanding demand of local manufacturers, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MEPCO Masud Salahuddin has exempted the industry of load shedding in Southern Punjab and Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO) has declared all the 129 industrial feeders as load shedding-free. He was addressing the members of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) chaired by Khawaja Jalaluddin Roomi.
He said that there would be no or minimum load shedding in 2018, a year of happiness and prosperity. He said we have recommended enhancing the powers of board of directors of MEPCO so that all issues could be resolved locally. He said that disputes with agriculture sector have already been resolved and they are making payments of their outstanding bills. Work is in progress on more than 300 feeders of 11 KV which would be completed during the current fiscal year. To a Question he said that pre-paid meter installation programme was being finalised while installation of AMR meters would begin during current year.
He told that Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO) has caught 333,755 power pilferers and imposed over Rs 1.9 billion fine on them across the region.
Various teams raided residential and commercial buildings and detected power theft. The teams also recovered Rs 644 million from the power thieves from July 2016 to January 2017. Chairman of MEPCO board of Directors Khalid Masud disclosed that the MEPCO has introduced a new policy for the replacement or repair of transformers under which consumers will have to deposit one third of the cost instead of payment of whole amount in advance and Transformer would be replaced within 12 hours and it would be covered under a year's warranty.
In his welcome address MCCI President Khawaja Jalaluddin Roomi complained that the duration of power load-shedding was increasing with the change of weather and MEPCO should take measures to supply uninterrupted electricity during summer.
He further said that MEPCO should ensure regular supply of electricity to agriculture as well as SME sector. He said that load-shedding at regular intervals was harmful to both sectors. He suggested that power generating units be commissioned or upgraded before making them operational and power tariff must be reduced to provide a relief to the consumers.