Islamabad: The government has gone on board with an ambitious program to cut down circular debt to PKR 225 billion by December 2019 after it escalated to PKR 450 in a year’s time.
As per the sources, the circular debt has intensified to PKR 450 billion in a timeframe of one year to delay in tariff determination with the absence of proper plan to stop the power pilferage and the power supply to high losses feeders. As per the plan, the circular debt will be bringing down PKR 225 billion from the existing over PKR 600 billion by 31 December 2019.
The sources alleged that the past government has not given any attention to the power sector recovery besides unremitting power supply to high losses feeders. Owing to the efforts of the incumbent government, the power sector revenue has witness PKR 40 billion surges in the last three months. This Kunda culture must be eliminated with the support of the public representatives and the extensive drive against power theft.
Special anti-power theft campaigns have been launched in the interior Sindh, FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. As per the sources, over 20,000 FIRs (First Investigation Reports) have been lodged against the power pilferers and more than 2,000 accused in this regard has been arrested.
The sources further elaborated that the raids will be conducted during the night time too to curb the menace of power theft. More than 450 officials of various distribution companies are also found involved in the theft of power supply and they have been terminated from their services.
PESCO (Peshawar Electric Supply Company), QESCO ( Quetta Electric Supply Company ), MEPCO (Multan Electric Supply Company) and LESCO (Lahore Electric Supply Company) will be further bifurcated to bring the improvement in the performances.
The sources have informed that a total of 840,000 power transformers are in the country and currently the sources are in mid of dialogue with World Bank (WB) to help in installing separate meters on every transformer.
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