PESHAWAR, Nov 13: The provincial government has paid Rs300 million as charges of electricity, consumed at security checkposts and camps set up for internally displaced persons during the last two years, according to officials.
The expenditure is likely to go up to Rs500 million as, according to an official of the finance department, the Peshawar Electric Supply Company has shown some more arrears against the provincial government.
The electricity charges payable against connections installed at army and Frontier Corps checkposts across Swat and Dir districts and other places in the province have to be paid by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. Similarly, the electricity charges payable by internally displaced persons camps are also borne by the provincial kitty, said the official.
The Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps were called in to beef up security in urban and semi-urban centres across the province amidst rising threats from militants.
Military operations carried out against militants during the past few years resulted into a large scale displacement as hundreds of thousands of people left their homes in Swat and Buner districts for safety, taking shelter in temporary camps set up by the provincial government.
Some 14 camps for internally displaced persons had originally been set up at Mardan, Nowshera and Peshawar. Special arrangements were made to provide electricity to most of these camps.
Similarly, hundreds of checkposts manned by army and Frontier Corps established in Swat, Buner, Dir Upper, Dir Lower, Peshawar, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and other places, said official sources, had also been also provided electricity.
However, the Rs500 million electricity charges billed to the government, said the official, were not free from disputes.
Though we made the payment (Rs300 million) in advance, the matter is disputed and the remaining payment would be made after reconciling the bills with the power distribution company, said an official involved in the reconciliation of governments electricity bills with Pesco.
The government, he said, thought that Pesco overcharged the checkposts and IDP camps. He added that all of the bills needed to be reconciled for which teams had been constituted to conduct physical verification of all the electricity connections installed at the checkposts and IDP camps.
Our data suggests that they charged us 70 per cent more than the electricity consumed at security checkposts in Swat, said the official. The provincial government, he added, had also involved military authorities in the matter to reconcile the bills with Pesco.
The teams, he said, involved representatives from the provincial government, Pesco, and military. Their job was to visit all the security checkposts and reconcile the charges with the number of electricity units consumed at each of the posts, verifying the bills, he added.
A Swat-based official of provincial government, when contacted, said that teams were inspecting checkposts to find out the number of power plugs, electric appliances and lights each one of them used. This exercise helps to determine the use of electricity and the bills charged to each checkpost, said the official.
We are ready to resolve their complaints. Let us sit together and settle the overbilling issue, said Mohammad Wali, Pesco Chief Executive Officer, when contacted by Dawn.
However, the provincial government, said one of its officials, had got a long list of complaints against the distribution company.
Giving an example, the official said that two security checkposts set up in a closed down marble factory in Swat were billed an amount equal to the electricity consumed usually by a fully operational marble processing unit.
When we took up the matter with Pescos local staff at Swat they said electricity heaters were being used for cooking purposes, said the official, adding then we moved the military authorities, who rejected the information.
An army colonel personally visited the marble factory to verify the presence of heaters, he said, adding we were told that neither heaters were allowed at any of the checkposts nor the security personnel cook their meals there.
The military, he said, had a system of supply cooked meal at all checkposts. Similarly, the electricity bills pertaining to IDP camps also involved disputes, according to an official of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority.
The PDMA official said that Pesco staff and the provincial government always remained engaged to reconcile the bills, resolving the payment issue.
Though the provincial government has provided power supply to IDPs at Jalozai, near Peshawar, a large segment of the tented population in the same camp is without electricity. During a recent visit to the camp by this scribe, several IDPs complained abut non-availability of electricity. Even those, who have been extended the facility, too complained. They said that electricity was provided only in the nighttime.
Officials of the finance department said that provincial governments annual electricity bill had escalated because of electricity consumed at IDP camps and checkposts. The government, an official said, had brought down its annual electricity bill from Rs2.6 billion in 2003-04 financial year to Rs1.68 billion in 2007-08 financial year by taking several measures one of which was reconciliation of bills of its electricity connections with Pesco. However, the governments annual electricity expenditure increased to Rs2.28 billion in the 2009-10 fiscal year.
The escalation, said the official, took effect partly because of increase in electricity tariff by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority and partly due to power consumption at security checkposts and camps for IDPs.
KP foots Rs300m power bill for IDP camps, checkposts | Provinces | DAWN.COM
