Govt launches crackdown against electricity theft, non-payment of bills

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has announced to launch a crackdown across the country to control electricity theft and non-payment of bills as losses reach billions every year.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi,  Minister for Power and Energy Muhammad Ali addressed a press conference to announce that action is been taken against the directives of the prime minister.

The Power Minister said there are ten distribution companies in Pakistan facing a total loss of Rs 589 billion annually. He said power theft and nonpayment of electricity bills are the major causes of this huge loss.

He said due to electricity thieves and those who refuse to pay bills, others have to pay higher bills. He said that until this practice is stopped, electricity prices will not come down.

The minister said the total loss in the distribution companies where recovery is relatively better – Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan and Islamabad – is estimated at 3 percent. This amounts to 79 billion units amounting to a loss of Rs100 billion.

The Discos in Peshawar, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Quetta, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir have losses as high as 60 percent, the minister said.

To deal with the issue of power theft, the minister said the government has planned a three-pronged strategy, He said under this strategy, technology interventions will be made in the areas where line losses are 15 to 30 percent.

Secondly, the involvement of the private sector will be ensured in the management where electricity theft is from 30 to 60 percent while enforcement will be ensured in the areas where power theft is more than 60 percent.

The minister said there is a dire need to introduce reforms in the energy sector. He the government has communicated with chief secretaries and police chiefs in provinces and has received full support.

He said they have prepared a list of officers who are involved in the theft who will be reshuffled and removed from field jobs. The minister said the operations to curb electricity theft will be monitored by the Power Ministry from Islamabad.

He said they have established a control room and developed a dashboard at PPMC (Power Planning and Monitoring Company) to manage the performance of Discos. He said the implementation and execution will be carried out at the provincial, district, and tehsil level.

The minister also announced that work was in progress on a new electricity theft control act to control electricity theft. He said the draft ordinance will be prepared in the next two to three weeks and sent to the federal cabinet for approval.

In response to a question, the minister said work was also in progress on reducing capacity payments but the measures would take time. He said the government was also considering the options of privatizing Discos or handing them over to provinces.

To another query, he said work is also underway on the issue of free units to WAPDA officials. He said the list of officials involved in power theft have been prepared with consultations of the respective chief executives.