Abdul Rasheed Azad/Business Recorder/11-01-2020

ISLAMABAD: Federal Secretary Power Division Irfan Ali hassaid that the government generated overall additional revenue of Rs. 229 billion from the distribution companies (DISCOs) in between October 2018 to October 2019. While briefing the subcommittee of the Public Accounts Committee, which met here under the chairmanship of Senator Shibli Faraz, Irfan Ali said that as a result of improvement in recovery mechanism, the government over the period has made Rs 229 billion additional recoveries from various consumers of which Rs 118 billion additional revenue has been generated by increasing power tariff and Rs 111 billion by capacity building of the power distribution companies. The official of the Power Division briefed the committee regarding overall losses in all DISCOs and exploring the cheaper sources of power generation including renewable energy under Power Division in the light of discussion made in the previous meeting. The committee was informed that there was no load shedding in areas where people are paying bills. The sub-committee directed Power Division, Ministry of Energy, to conduct evaluation of all electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) at the earliest. The secretary Power Division informed the panel that from October 2018 to October 2019, the government registered over 52,000 first information reports (FIRs) against power thieves and 7,300 people were arrested on account of electricity theft.