LAHORE: Several town/tehsil municipal administrations (TMAs), Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and the Irrigation Department top the chronic government defaulters list compiled by the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco).

The TMAs of Lahore, Kasur, Okara, Nankana Sahib and Sheikhupura collectively owe Rs7.192 billion, according to a Lesco spokesman. Wasa Lahore owes Rs2.297 billion, followed by the Punjab Irrigation Department with Rs713 million.

Other defaulters include the Punjab Police Department (Rs496 million), District Government of Lahore (Rs495 million), Pakistan Railways (Rs409 million), Kasur district government (Rs381 million), Parks and Horticulture Authority (Rs253 million), Punjab Prisons Department (Rs243 million), Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (Rs238 million), Lahore Ring Road Authority (Rs231 million), Lahore Development Authority (LDA) (Rs205 million), PWD (Rs103 million), Geological Survey of Pakistan (Rs71 million) and Cabinet Secretariat (Rs41 million).

The power division has written to four provincial governments, urging them to pay electricity bills amounting to Rs150 billion to avoid power cuts and financial losses to the national economy. It warned that limited resources with distribution companies (Discos) make uninterrupted supply difficult, exacerbating circular debt.

Punjab-based Discos have receivables of Rs38.01 billion against provincial government departments. Lesco is the most affected with receivables worth Rs17.27 billion as of September, followed by Rs9.90 billion for Multan Electric Power Company.

Faisalabad, Islamabad, and Gujranwala Discos also have significant outstanding dues of Rs5.05 billion, Rs2.93 billion, and Rs2.84 billion, respectively.

POWER PILFERAGE: Power Pilferage Operations: The Lesco teams on Saturday detected a total of 515 connections where customers were pilfering electricity across its circles in five districts (Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur, and Okara) during its anti-power theft campaign.

The Lesco spokesman told the media on Saturday that the company had also submitted FIR applications against electricity thieves, of which 165 FIRs have been registered in respective police stations, while 34 accused have been arrested by the police.

During the last 24 hours of the anti-power theft campaign, the spokesman added, large commercial consumers were also found involved in electricity theft. Among the seized connections were 15 commercial, 2 agricultural, 1 industrial, and 497 domestic connections, all of which were disconnected and charged with detection units. These connections were disconnected and charged with a total of 565,377 units as detection bills amounting to Rs13.309 million.

Meanwhile, Lesco teams also recovered Rs8.029 million from 297 chronic defaulters across the five districts—Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur, and Okara—during the recovery campaign on Saturday.

The spokesman said that the company had recovered outstanding dues of Rs1.048 million from 24 defaulters in the Northern Circle, Rs0.039 million from 18 defaulters in the Eastern Circle, Rs2.038 million from 44 defaulters in the Central Circle, Rs1.069 million from 56 defaulters in the Southern Circle, Rs0.030 million from 22 defaulters in the Nankana Sahib Circle, Rs0.087 million from 50 defaulters in the Sheikhupura Circle, Rs0.060 million from 58 defaulters in the Okara Circle, and Rs0.057 million from 25 defaulters in the Kasur Circle.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2024