Bloated power bills

THE practice of power distribution companies systematically overcharging their customers to show higher bill recovery rates is not new. The issue surfaces every summer when unsuspecting consumers are delivered excessively bloated bills. Protests follow, an inquiry is conducted, ad hoc solutions are announced and the matter is forgotten as winter temperatures reduce electricity usage. This happened last year and is happening this summer too. The magnitude of the issue was brought to the fore by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi who recently disclosed that he had evidence that as many as 830m units were overbilled by the Lahore Electric Supply Company in 2023, including the so-called lifeline consumers. He had also ordered the FIA to launch an investigation into the issue of overbilling by the distribution firms and punish those found responsible. Apparently, that exercise, if it was ever carried out, proved to be futile as it failed to deter the functionaries of power companies who have continued to send inflated bills to their customers. Mr Naqvi’s ‘zero-tolerance policy’ on overbilling seems to have fizzled out as well.
A Nepra inquiry report on recent allegations of overbilling by the Discos accuses all companies of fleecing their customers by charging for units they had never consumed, adding to the burden of already backbreaking bills from April to June. Even the privately owned and managed K-Electric, which should have served as an example for the public utilities, is found to have overcharged its consumers. Another Nepra inquiry last year into overbilling by the Discos had reached the same conclusion against all distribution companies, saying this practice called into question the integrity of the Discos’ entire revenue streams — from meter reading to billing and penalties. However, none of these firms were penalised as the power sector regulator thought it better to ‘ignore’ excessive and wrong billing. The outcome of this useless inquiry will not be any different, barring a few transfers here and there. The prime minister has already given the affected consumers 10 extra days to pay their bills for July and August ‘in view of their difficulties’, instead of ordering the Discos to right the wrong done to their customers. Condoning this old practice of the distribution companies amounts to helping perpetuate corrupt practices in the power sector. So much for the policy of zero tolerance and commitment to reforms.
Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2024