Rs250bn worth power theft taking place in Pakistan annually: minister

Islamabad: Federal Minister for Energy Owais Leghari informed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Energy that electricity theft amounts to Rs250 billion annually.

He also stated that K-Electric can now draw up to 600 megawatts from the national grid, which will bring its total electricity capacity to 2,000 megawatts.

The meeting of the Standing Committee on Power was chaired by MNA Muhammad Idrees. During the meeting, officials from the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) revealed that a fault at the Jamshoro grid causes a complete blackout across HESCO’s network. A fault in the Jamshoro grid would mean power outages in 13 cities.

The federal minister stated that the Jamshoro grid only goes dark when there is a national blackout. “I do not recall any separate incident of fault at the Jamshoro grid,” he said.

However, HESCO officials countered by stating that there have been faults at the Jamshoro grid in the past, which had severely impacted their network. “That is why we’ve requested the establishment of an alternative grid station. We propose a 220 kV alternate grid station for HESCO, which can be supplied from either Matiari or Nawabshah.”

Committee member Syed Waseem Hussain added that a fault at the Jamshoro grid can even affect the entire city of Karachi.

The minister responded by clarifying, “Jamshoro grid has no connection with K-Electric. K-Electric’s entire power system operates independently.”

Leghari stated, “K-Electric can now draw up to 600 megawatts from the national grid, which would increase its total power availability to 2,000 megawatts. Before we address the need for an alternative grid, we’ll have a detailed report prepared.”

He added, “We cannot act in the role of an authority without proper groundwork. For me, approving new connections is simple. More connections will mean higher electricity usage. As usage increases, electricity tariffs will decrease. The reason electricity is expensive is that usage is currently low.”

Committee member Rana Sikandar Hayat said that connections should be provided in housing societies to increase electricity consumption.

Leghari agreed but added, “While that benefits the power department, it comes at a national cost. Send demand notices from the authorities, and we’ll provide the connections. Electricity theft is not Rs. 500 billion—it's Rs. 250 billion annually.”

Rana Sikandar Hayat added that the remaining unrecovered amount is from unpaid bills.

Committee member Malik Anwar Taj raised the issue that people are currently debating the difference in billing between 200 and 201 electricity units. He demanded that this matter be added to the committee’s agenda.

Malik Anwar Taj asked, “Why does the electricity bill increase so drastically with the difference of just one unit?”