Govt to bring ordinance against power theft

Islamabad: The caretaker government has decided to bring an ordinance in the cabinet meeting held on Sunday to stop electricity theft.

However, no decision could be taken regarding giving immediate relief to electricity consumers.

As stated in the draft ordinance, non-payment of electricity bills will also be considered electricity theft.

The government will set up an anti-electricity theft force across the country which will not only help in controlling power theft but will also help to increase the recovery of electricity bills.

Electricity theft and non-payment will be considered serious offences.

Government has also started reviewing the initiative of net metering of solar panels installed by people on their rooftops as it has led to increased payment of capacity charges, which is the main source of expensive bills.

It is expected that government will collect Rs3.29 trillion from consumers in the financial year 2023-24, out of which consumers will have to pay Rs2 trillion in capacity charges.

The country has a power generation capacity of 41000 MW. While 1000 MW of solar power is being generated by people across the country on their rooftops and selling their excess solar power to the government.

Due to the 1000 MW of solar panels, the system is not selling electricity and this has resulted in increased electricity capacity charges, which has led to an increase in electricity bills.

This was decided on Sunday in a high-level meeting chaired by Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar.

Power Division and Discos officials made a presentation on payment of revolving loan, capacity charges of Rs.2 trillion. The Secretary of Power Division told the participants of the meeting that the theft and recovery losses have reached 550 billion rupees.

As far as providing relief to the inflation-affected public in high electricity bills is concerned, the senior officials of the Power Division and the Finance Ministry, knowing the fact that the government is under International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) stringent debt arrangements under its $9 billion standby arrangement, Financial discipline is in place to solve the issue together in 48 hours to give relief to the people.

Finance division will take the IMF into confidence about any tax relief on electricity bills, but former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the government should cut 35% of electricity bills as an immediate relief.

Pass on the amount deducted to the consumers in the coming five months of winter and that is the only recipe to give relief to the public, he added.

The former prime minister argued that electricity bills are lower in winter because the power consumption is only 10 to 12 MW during the winter season as air conditioners and fans, which use more electricity, are switched off.