LAHORE, June 29: Line losses of the Water and Power Development Authority remained stubbornly high at 26 per cent during the first 11 months of the current fiscal year.

According to its Power Distribution Progress Report of May 2002, the Wapda generated 54.781 billion units during these months and consumed 1.1182 billion units for generation — an auxiliary loss of 2.2 per cent.

Its net generation stood at 53.599 billion units. It dispatched 49.433 billion units for sale — a loss of 4.166 billion units or 7.6 per cent known as transmission losses.

Out of these 49.43 billion units, 8.874 units, or 16.2 per cent, were lost during distribution. Thus, the total loss stood at 26 per cent.

In their tariff review petitions to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, the Wapda authorities had committed themselves to bringing the losses down to 23.6 per cent by the end of year 2001-02. Failing to achieve the target, they revised the figure to 24.6 per cent. This, too, now seems impossible given the present high figure. In a present tariff review petition, seeking an 88-paisa per unit raise, the Wapda has promised to bring the losses down to 23.1 per cent during next year.

Losses for the month of May alone stood at 29.8 per cent. This included auxiliary losses of 2.2 per cent, transmission losses of 7.1 per cent and distribution losses of 20.5 per cent.

Recovery from the private sector also suffered during these 11 months. The Wapda collected only Rs160 billion against a billing of Rs166.3 billions — a slippage of four per cent. It billing during the period increased by 9.6 per cent and recovery by 8 per cent. This failure to recover dues from the private sector increased the outstanding dues from Rs16.546 billion in the beginning of the year to Rs23.057 billion during the 11 months — an increase of Rs6.511 billion.

According to an billing department insider, the Wapda may be able to recover some of the losses during the month of June by resorting to late reading. By delaying metre readings by 10 to 15 days, the Authority can extend the length of time in a billing month. By doing so, it squeezes payment dates and recovers 33 to 40 per cent more payments. The common complaint of getting bills late and close to the deadline for payment is caused by this strategy. The billing is brought back to normal over several months. This allows the Wapda to show some improvement in the month of June, crucial for financial reasons.

About its receivables from government sector, the books show a decrease of Rs93 million. In the beginning of the year, the government departments owed the Wapda Rs28.155 billion. It billed these departments for another Rs36.698 billion and recovered Rs36.791 billion. But during the same period, it wrote off Rs2.002 billion for various government departments. This took the total write-off during the last three years to over Rs19 billion.