ISLAMABAD: Power Division Secretary Rashid Langrial ended free electricity for grade 17 and above power distribution company officers on Sunday.
Secretary Langrial briefed journalists in Islamabad on electricity sector concerns and said the decision summary would prepared soon.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) suggested removing free electricity for grade 16-22 government employees in July.
Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar will also hold an emergency meeting at the Prime Minister’s House today (Sunday) to discuss soaring electricity rates.
The high electricity bills sparked protests in Karachi, Rawalpindi, Multan, Gujranwala, and Peshawar. The protesters burned their electricity bills, stopped causeways, and approached power distributors’ offices demanding mass relief.
Secretary Langrial said electricity system faults must be remedied during the press briefing.
He also mentioned electricity fraud and Rs2,300 billion circular debt.
At the press briefing, power sector officials discussed electricity theft, valued over Rs250 billion in the country.
“Net metering is a source of increasing capacity payments, but will have to be terminated,” officials added.
The officials also discussed growing electricity rates and said the local currency’s devaluation versus the US dollar the main cause.
The July PAC meeting evaluated the Power Division of the Ministry of Energy’s 2020-21 and 2021-22 audit paras.
The committee furious that Wapda employees still receiving free electricity and resolved to write to the prime minister to consider stopping it for all officers of grade 16-22.
Then-PAC chairman Noor Alam Khan said, “The poor pay hefty electricity bills but the elite are provided free electricity facility.” He said that legislators do not receive free power or gas.
Khan said free power for officers in grades 16-22 should end because the country lost Rs9 billion annually. He said he will also discuss free electricity in the National Assembly.
