Wapda kicks off drive for recovery of Rs 261 billion arrears

Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) on the special directive of Federal Minister for Water and Power has kicked off a nationwide campaign for the recovery of Rs 261 billion stuck up arrears from defaulters.

Managing Director, Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) Eng Tahir Basharat Cheema giving the details of the campaign told reporter here Sunday that Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) owes Rs 80.102 billon, (under final stage of settlement)

FATA Rs 81.826 billion, provincial governments Rs 19.196 billion,

federal government Rs 1.76 billion, AJK government Rs 2.845 billion, autonomous bodies Rs 1.29 billion and Rs 59 billion to Wapda. He said special Revenue Generation Task Force has been constituted at WAPDA house to expedite the pace of recovery of arrears on priority basis. He said after his elevation as MD PEPCO, he has only two priorities first one is to get out of energy crisis on war footings and the second one is appreciable improvement in customer care.

He said that other priorities are to improve operational performance, check power pilferage, ensure timely payment of bills and legitimate recovery of arrears.

Wapda had warned all the defaulters irrespective of their status to clear their current bills and arrears to avoid any action which may lead to attachment of properties besides immediate disconnection of their power connection. The PEPCO, in principle, has decided to give tough time to defaulters especially chronic to realise the lawful arrears.

The MD said that all the Chief Executives, SEs, Xens and SDOs working in distribution companies across the country have been directed to disconnect the power supply of defaulters forthwith and initiate lawful action against them.

Tahir Basharat Cheema said that all the SDOs have also been strictly directed to personally pursue and plead the cases in the court. He said that all consumers including government departments and public sectors have been asked to make habit of paying their electricity bill timely to help Wapda to launch more and more power generation projects to meet the ever-increasing demand electricity in the country.

He said that several recovery teams have been constituted at sub division level to fully ensure the cent per cent recovery of the arrears especially dead arrears from the defaulters. He warned all officials not to restore the power supply unless all the arrears were cleared, failing which, concerned officer would be suspended from service. He said that all officers would be personally responsible for achieving the targets sets by the authority. About power theft, he said that name of informers would be kept secret besides cash reward to them.

Related terms: electricity, energy, federal, government, pakistan, revenue, war, water