ISLAMABAD: Federal Power Minister Omar Ayub Khan on Tuesday confirmed the existence of an entrenched culture of corruption and inefficiencies in the power sector that hampers ending loadshedding even if floodgates of supply have been opened.

“The dilemma is that even if we open floodgates of electricity, we cannot end loadshedding and this will devastate the national economy,” he said while testifying before the Senate Standing Committee on Power.

The minister said electricity theft was widespread across the country which was not possible without involvement of officials of the power companies.

The committee headed by Senator Fida Muhammad expressed concern over conditions prevailing in the power sector. Senator Nauman Wazir deplored that circular debt now hovered around Rs1.3 trillion ($10 billion) — incidentally equal to the amount that Pakistan is seeking from the Inter­national Monetary Fund and others. “You would not need a bailout if you are able to recover unpaid electricity bills,” he said.

The minister said it was his top priority to get inefficiencies out of the distribution network for which engineers would need to be recruited and technology introduced on urgent basis. He said the transmission and distribution system required an investment of about $5bn to control system losses and ensure stable power supply.

Omar Ayub says electricity theft not possible without involvement of officials of power companies

The minister said the power division was engaging with the provinces on creation of special task forces with the support of the provincial governments and local authorities and law enforcement agencies for crackdown against power theft. He said he himself and the power secretary would visit various parts of Balochistan next week and take the provincial government on board in this regard.

He said the power division was currently working on a mechanism to deal with power theft) with the support of the power companies, provincial authorities and notable consumers to ensure that suspension of electricity supply in high-loss areas was limited to transformer level, instead of closure of grid stations.

Power Secretary Irfan Ai said anti-theft operations were so difficult that consumers resisted removal of installations. He said a team of the Quetta Electric Supply Company was held hostage by Frontier Constabulary personnel a few days ago when it was removing a high-loss transformer in Mastung. The team members were released only after intervention from Islamabad through the chief secretary and high ups of the paramilitary force.

The minister admitted that there was fictitious billing even his own constituency, besides kundas, theft and non-recoveries. “But that is not enough. There are a number of islands of corruption. Meter workshops is one, transformers is another, supply of materials yet another and all these have to be blocked at the earliest.

For this, he said, the enterprise resource system was being made part of the financial models of the power companies.

The minister said given the fact that power theft was not possible without officials of power companies who were more prone to help big commercial and industrial consumers, the government had now decided to launch an anti-theft campaign from big thieves and defaulters.

He said shortage of staff was a serious challenge and, giving an example, added that there was only one meter reader in his constituency for 20,000 connections which meant it was practically impossible for him to ensure meter reading even if a helicopter was on his disposal.

He said the aerial bundle cables were being introduced in the distribution companies to minimise kunda culture by ensuring actual measurement of power supply between a grid and a feeder and down to transformer level and then move on to advance meter reading at consumer stage.

Senator Wazir proposed making recoveries, correct billing, reduction in losses and similar other benchmarks part of the key performance indicators of the staff of the power companies for promotions and incentives. He said the contractors should be hired in high-loss areas, who should get returns on incremental reduction in losses and increase in recoveries.

The meeting was told that there were more than 6,000 illegal tubewells in Balochistan besides about 29,000 registered tubewells against which neither the consumers nor the federal and provincial governments were clearing their dues.

The chief executive officer of the Lahore Electric Supply Company said there was no mechanism in place to exactly know distribution losses in domestic and industrial sectors. He said an electricity theft of 4 million units was unearthed at an industrial unit and legal course was currently in progress.

Secretary Ali said the government had linked clearance for materialisation of Shanghai Electric and Abraaj deal for transfer of K-Electric shares to clean and clear settlement of liabilities payable by KE to the National Transmission and Dispatch Company. He said the parties had not been able to reconcile these liabilities, particularly late payment mark ups.

The committee was informed that Diamer-Bhasha dam involved land acquisition of 37,500 acres and 83pc land acquisition had been completed. The construction on the dam was expected to begin in April 2020 and complete in 2028. Likewise, the construction of Mohmand dam was expected to start in April 2019 and complete in 2025.

The meeting was told the delay in land acquisition was mostly because of boundary issues. It was reported that Basha dam would have two power houses and they would be situated one each in Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2018

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