MUZAFFARABAD: Electricity consumers in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) owe more than Rs4 billion to the electricity department accumulated due to non-payment of electricity bills in the wake of an ongoing public movement and, resultantly, the resource-constrained government is facing difficulties in carrying on infrastructure development related activities, an official said on Tuesday.

These outstanding dues, said the recently posted secretary energy resources Irshad Ahmed Qureshi at a press talk, included Rs3.2 billion from domestic consumers, Rs1.08 billion from commercial consumers and Rs145 million from industrial consumers.

The arrears could have swelled to more than double, had the government not frozen electricity tariff to October 2022 level, he added.

Claiming that the power tariff in AJK was still less than that of Pakistan, Mr Qureshi added that the government was striving hard to provide electricity to people at an affordable price.

In this regard, he said, the government had not only waived the entire amount of late payment surcharge on electricity bills accumulated since August last year but had also announced the facility of easy instalments.

“It’s my humble request to the people to deposit their bills and the amount thus generated would be spent on their own welfare through different developmental activities.”

Mr Qureshi said the federal government had constituted an inter-ministerial committee, headed by the federal minister for defence, to look into the issues and demands of the liberated territory.

According to him, serious deliberations were being held on AJK’s demands, and three out of seven working groups of the committee were dealing exclusively with the energy sector issues, including power tariff for AJK, agreements on Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project and Mangla.

Side by side, Mr Qureshi said, the AJK government had also embarked upon maximum exploitation of its hydropower generation potential and by the end of the ongoing [calendar] year, 51MW electricity would be added to the AJK’s system following the commissioning of Jagran-II in Neelum valley and Chham in Jhelum valley.

Responding to the claims by power division officials in a section of media, Mr Qureshi said though the AJK government was firm in its stance that it should be charged Rs 2.59 per unit, the Finance Division had deducted Rs20 billion at source from AJK’s share in federal taxes, commonly known as variable grant. “In effect, we are being charged a basket price of Rs34.36 per unit against our will,” he said.

He said payment of GST on electricity produced from Mangla dam was also one of the issues to be addressed holistically.

Responding to another question, he said he had got the practice of forced load-shedding by power companies abolished and now it would be done only in accordance with the already issued schedule.

“I have also passed standing orders that faulty transformers must be replaced within one day,” he said.However, the secretary avoided reply to a question on how many households in Muzaffarabad and elsewhere in AJK were being provided round the clock electricity through special lines.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2024