It has been revealed in the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly that electricity companies have imposed an additional burden of thousands of units on consumers under overbilling, while consumers are not even refunded their money if no complaint is received.
The meeting of the Public Accounts Committee was chaired by Committee Chairman Shahida Akhtar, where audit officials informed the briefing that consumers who do not apply for overbilling refund claims do not get their money back, and those whose billing complaints are not received do not get anything.
Senator Afnanullah, a member of the committee, said that people have paid their bills by selling their jewelry, what is this method? Refunds were given to 278,000 consumers out of 904.6 million units. How can a consumer use 3,200 units? Were industrial consumers also among those who were refunded?
The CEO of LESCO said that some tubewell and industrial consumers were also involved, electricity thieves have adopted very smart methods for theft, some consumers are controlling meters by installing devices in their beds.
Hussain Tariq said that it has been reported in the news that 41,000 units were charged to consumers in one day.
Shazia Marri said that you have declared people as thieves, the audit report is on the performance of your institution, the report is about the incompetence and negligence of the electricity companies.
Senator Afnanullah Khan said that if no one complains, then they can put as many units on them as they want, in such a way they will put 10, 10 units more on many people, how much overbilling is actually happening in the country and it is difficult to estimate, overbilling is happening even more than we thought.
Chairman of the committee Shahida Akhtar said that you have put the electricity consumers in trouble, the burden of the units that the consumer did not use was also put on them.
The energy secretary said that the companies have submitted the records for the audit late, do not settle this paragraph until then, until smart meters are installed, then they will see the matters like this.
He said that this year 16 million smart meters will be installed and the loss of units will be avoided. We have held meetings with Saudi Arabia and Turkey in this regard. Perhaps we will have to go for a public-private partnership for smart meters.
The Energy Secretary said that now if someone’s meter is faulty, not the old one, but a smart meter will be installed.
The committee directed the DAC to resolve the matter and inform the Public Accounts Committee.