Unpaid electricity bills
Everyone is suffering from loadshedding. There have also been reports in the media about angry people ransacking the offices of Wapda and power distribution companies. According to reports in newspapers, the duration of loadshedding has been increased because of non-availability of gas and furnace oil. It is said that the non-availability of fuel is caused by non-payment and long outstanding dues by electricity defaulters.
The figures of electricity defaulters are quite huge as revealed from time to time by the Pakistan Electric Power Company.
It has to recover a big amount from all provinces, including AJK. Sindh has to pay over Rs39bn, Balochistan Rs18bn, Punjab Rs5bn, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rs16bn and Azad Jammu Kashmir Rs10bn electricity dues.
A rough estimate of the amount to be received by power generation companies is over Rs350bn. This is a lot of money.
There is thus a dire need to establish a bill payment culture in every department, institution and household to overcome the
problem of power shortage.
RAHIMA MOIN
Karachi
The rupee's free-fall now threatens to stoke inflation, pull down the markets, and put additional pressure on an economy that has already contracted and is expected to grow by barely seven per cent this fiscal year – down from the nine per cent announced by the government at the beginning of the year. "There is a very strong pressure on the rupee to depreciate," says Subir Gokarn, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, the country's respected central bank.
One of the currency's challenges, as many believe, is India's steep oil import bill, at a time when oil prices have gone through the roof. India imports more than three-quarters of its crude oil, and the annual bill stands at $154bn. "Large dollar demand, especially by the oil companies, is keeping the currency up and down," said Commerce Minister Anand Sharma. "Our oil bill is on the higher side, and [is] responsible for the fall of the rupee."
Punjab is the biggest province in terms of population and GDP of them all yet it owes 5 billion. Less than all of them ? Goverment in Punjab must be better than rest of them combined.
"The Government is working on projects to resolve the energy crisis."
Gilani
He needs to elaborate on that.
The Pakistan Electric Power Company needs to sue and get court judgements against all of these big debtors and seize their personal property or office and industrial equipment and real estate in lieu of payment.
These big debtors have big political influence, and so the president and prime minister need to stand back and let the court system solve the problem without any intimidation of the Pakistan Electric Power Company executives.
This debt is collectable, but the power company is being held at bay by the people in power.
If this problem is not solved it will simply cause more inflation, when there are financial remedies available. If paying the bills causes a company to go bankrupt, then the creditors can own it and liquidate the assets according to law.