PESHAWAR, Aug 8: Despite repeated power tariff hikes, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s annual power bill has registered a decrease by 12 per cent, saving Rs40 billion to the provincial public exchequer in 10 years.

While the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has brought its annual electricity bill significantly down during the 2002-03 and 2011-12 period, Punjab and Sindh recorded whopping increases in the same period, according to an official of the provincial finance department.

“Sindh registered a total increase by 370 per cent and Punjab 147 per cent in their annual electricity bills during the said period,” he said.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to officials, managed to keep its annual power bill under control by rigorously pursuing reconciliation of electricity bills with Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), keeping a close eye on the monthly electricity bills.

The energy monitoring cell, established in the finance department in early 2001-02, said the official, worked closely with Wapda, saving billions of rupees for the provincial exchequer through reconciliation of monthly electricity bills of the government’s line departments, their attached wings, directorates, provincial corporations, and district government entities.

“The cell counter checks Wapda bills and won many a claim against the authority by proving that the government departments were sent inflated and wrong bills,” said a relevant official, adding that Sindh had also started reconciliation of its electricity bills with Wapda, learning from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s experience.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s electricity bill stood at Rs2.72 billion in the financial year 2002-03, whereas, in the financial year 2011-12 it spent Rs2.64 billion under the said head.

From the financial year 2004-05 to financial year 2009-10 the provincial government spent around Rs1.8 billion every year on account of electricity charges, keeping the annual bill under a check by closely pursuing the reconciliation of monthly bills and pending dues with Wapda.

“Claims involving billions of rupees credit were won against Wapda, proving in numerous instances that it charged in excess of the actual charges that were payable by the provincial public sector entities,” said the official.

According to a provincial government’s document, available with Dawn, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s annual power bill stood at Rs2.4 billion in the financial year 2010-11 as compared to the Punjab government’s annual bill of Rs14.6 billion. While, Sindh government spent Rs17.9 billion on account of electricity charges in the said year.

According to official sources, Punjab and Sindh, too, have started reconciling their bills with Wapda and recorded substantial savings by putting brakes to wrong billings by the authority.

Punjab spent Rs7.7 billion in the financial year 2011-12 and Sindh Rs12.2 billion in the same year, recording saving of Rs7 billion and Rs5.8 billion, respectively, in one year.

Giving a recent example, an EMC official, when contacted, said that Wapda had billed Rs400 million to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the financial year 2009-10 on account of electricity KP saves billions by keeping Wapda bills under scrutiny  charges payable for the electricity consumed at army checkposts in Swat and temporary camps established to accommodate internally displaced persons.

“At the end (of a reconciliation of bills), the provincial government saved Rs100 million after its staff proved that the authority overcharged, trying to make money by deceiving the provincial government,” said a well-placed official of the finance department.

About the accumulative saving of about Rs40 billion recorded in 10 years since the EMC’s establishment, the official said that the figure had been arrived at by taking the annual bill of the 2002-03 financial year as the bench mark and applying a blanket increase over it in the annual billing by 10 per cent from the financial year 2003-04 to financial year 2005-06, 40 per cent in the 2009-10 fiscal, and 45 per cent in the 2011-12 fiscal.

Explaining the point, the official said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s annual bill in the 2002-03 financial was of Rs2.72 billion and it would have risen up to Rs10.9 billion in the 2010-11 fiscal and well beyond Rs15.7 billion in the financial year 2011-12.

The finance department official said that the provincial government’s annual electricity bill recorded an increase by around Rs300 million annually during the past three years because of electricity charges that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government paid on account of electricity charges payable by army checkposts, IDP camps, agriculture sector tubewells, and village development organisations’ water supply schemes.

Keeping its productivity and the money it saved over the years to the provincial public exchequer, the provincial government, said an official, had decided to upgrade EMC, developing management information system (MIS) enhancing its capacity to produce comprehensive monthly analytical reports.

In this respect, the cell would hire technical staff and in the process it would surrender a few posts of non-technical staff to maintain its productivity.