KARACHI: Taking notice of the non-recovery of over Rs20 billion in dues owed by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) to federal government institutions, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Sindh Assembly has directed the water utility to take up the matter with the Centre for the recovery of outstanding water bills.

The dues are outstanding against several federal government institutions, including Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), Port Qasim Authority, Pakistan Railways, Pakistan State Oil, Sui Southern Gas Company, Printing Corporation, Marine Fisheries, Cotton Export Corporation, Karachi Shipyard, Pakistan International Airlines, Pakistan Machinery Tool Factory and Cotton Export Corporation and cantonment boards.

The meeting, presided over by PAC Chairman Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, was attended among others by committee member Qasim Siraj Soomro and KWSC CEO Salahuddin Ahmed.

During the review of the audit reports of the water utility from 2019 to 2021, it was revealed that the water bills of over Rs20bn were outstanding against the federal government institutions in the province and that many of them had not paid the bills since 2016.

KWSC CEO Salahuddin Ahmed told the PAC that the PSM owed over Rs10bn in water bills since 2016, while the PSM was supplying water to 88 industries on a commercial basis at that time, but it did not clear the dues.

Mr Khuhro said that the provincial government should recover its liabilities of billions of rupees from the federation. “It is an injustice to Sindh to deprive the water board of payment of dues despite providing water facilities to the federal government institutions,” he deplored.

The PAC directed the KWSC to take up the matter with the federal government and write a letter to the relevant institutions to recover the liabilities.

Meanwhile, Mr Khuhro asked the water utility officials as to when the K-4 project would be completed and when the water supply to the people from the lines in every house of the city would start.

The KWSC CEO said the project would be completed by Dec 2025, for which Wapda had asked the federal government for Rs80bn this year.

The PAC was told that there were one million customers of the water utility in the city, but the recovery of bills was 35 per cent.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2024