Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said over-billing by power distribution companies (Discos) was unacceptable and ordered that installation of smart meters be completed as soon as possible to ensure transparency.
In February, a four-member independent inquiry committee on ‘Abject Failure – Illegal Overbilling’ confirmed allegations of overcharging made by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) against all Discos across the country, but acquitted them of plunder “deliberate and in bad faith.”
In April, Home Minister Mohsin Naqvi made it clear that overbilling would not be tolerated under any circumstances. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Energy (Energy Division) had also expressed serious concern over the rise in over-billing complaints in August.
The directives were issued today while the Prime Minister was chairing a review meeting on the performance of Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fescp), according to a press release from the press from the prime minister’s office. .
During the meeting, Chief Minister Shehbaz termed over-billing as unacceptable and stated that strict action would be taken against officials involved in such practices.
He expressed concern over the delay in the appointment process of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Discos and directed to ensure that the appointments were made at the earliest through a highly transparent process.
“Recruitment of labor in distribution companies should be based on merit, without compromising transparency,” the prime minister said.
Meanwhile, the meeting also reported on the progress of the installation of smart meters.
Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) meters, also known as smart meters, automatically transfer reading data to the control room (main server) at the exact meter reading date and time, allowing officials to process and send invoices to consumers quickly.
Since the system also allows Discos to receive and verify readings daily, it minimizes the chances of corruption (overbilling, tampering, etc.) by ending the outdated manual reading system.
Pesco ranked first in installation rate, with 51,173 of 152,559 smart meters installed, according to figures reported by the state company APPLICATION.
Of 223,365 three-phase smart meters, Lesco had installed 49,470. Fesco had only installed 11,276 out of 192,311 smart meters.
Chief Minister Shehbaz also said that all available resources should be utilized to meet the targets set by Nepra.
According to a detailed report on the achievement of the targets, the recovery rates till November of the current fiscal year (FY 2024-25) were 96.82 percent for Lesco, 87.98 percent for Pesco and 97, 57 percent for Fesco.
Transmission and distribution losses (till November FY 2024-25) remained at 13.04 per cent for Lesco, 33 per cent for Pesco and 6.01 per cent for Fesco.
Minister of Economic Affairs Ahsan Iqbal, Minister of Energy Division Awais Khan Leghari, Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Ali Pervez Malik, Prime Minister’s Coordinator Rana Ahsan Afzal and other senior government officials attended the meeting.
