ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly on Tuesday expressed concern with massive audit objections in the Power Division, causing losses to exchequer due to embezzlement of funds, over charging consumers in electricity bills and non-recovery of Rs877.6 billion power bills from defaulters.

During the audit of Discos, the Auditor General’s Office informed the PAC that Rs877.6 billion power dues have not been recovered from running and permanently disconnected defaulters of electricity dues both in government and private sector.

The PAC was further informed that no efforts were made by the management to accelerate the recovery of dues from defaulters.

The meeting was informed that the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) defaulted Rs44.4bn, Sukkur Electric Supply Company (Sepco) owed Rs198.4 billion and Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco) had defaulted Rs603.3bn.

Rs878bn yet to be recovered from govt, private defaulters, NA panel told

The audit found that non-adherence to commercial procedure resulted in non-recovery of Rs877.6bn from energy defaulters up to the financial year 2022-23.

Similarly, the government suffered a loss of Rs501.2 billion due to non-removal of electrical equipment and non-recovery of arrears. Taking up this matter, the Auditor General’s Office wrote 118 letters to ensure adherence to procedures, the meeting was informed.

The embezzlement of funds and materials caused the government a loss of Rs1.6bn. The audit noted that funds and materials amounting to Rs1.57bn were embezzled by officials.

In most of such cases, departmental inquiries were concluded and certain responsibilities and penalties were fixed, while in some other cases, the matter was under inquiry in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The audit of Discos also revealed that units amounting to Rs21.54 billion were refunded to 114,043 consumers on account of wrong reading.

The PAC was also informed that a major power breakdown in the country due to negligence of the National Transmission Dispatch Commission (NTDC) caused the loss of Rs2.8bn, failure to obtain insurance coverage caused Rs40bn loss, irregular award of contract to a non-responsive and disqualified bidder caused Rs58bn loss, and the loss due to payment of interest on delayed payment to Pak-Matiari-Lahore Transmission Company (PMLTC) transmission line charges amounted to Rs50bn.

In response, Power Division Secretary Dr Muhammad Fakhre Alam, informed PAC members that documents related to the recovery of Rs162bn had been submitted to the Auditor General’s office for verification 12 days ago.

He claimed that his office was working on permanent solutions, while looking at all aspects to improving functioning of power division such as introduction of latest technologies and smart equipment, privatisation of Discos, collaboration with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the finance ministry to mention some.

He said his office would keep PAC updated every month on the progress made in this regard. He said that the government had abolished the provision of free units to employees, who had in return approached courts to challenge the decision.

However, members demanded from the secretary of power division for an updated list of all power dues’ defaulters.

MNA Hina Rabbani Khar demanded details of line losses of the last five years. Members also objected to raids conducted with the assistance of Rangers in Balochistan on homes of common people to make recoveries of power dues from defaulters.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2025