The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Monday announced to conduct a major crackdown against electricity theft.
Decision was taken by ECC after conducting financial audit of the entire power sector, as part of a series of planned measures to cut down its losses, sources within the ECC said.
During a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Asad Umar, the ECC decided that it would introduce prepaid metres and bills for electricity defaulters.
The committee, according to sources, agreed that whosoever – including the PM house – won’t clear their electricity bill would face disconnections, while their metres would be uninstalled within three months.
Furthermore, the ECC, during today’s meeting, decided to create a separate committee for the privatisation of K-Electric.
The committee also expressed grave concerns regarding the Rs480 billion circular debt payments, and vowed to identify and take legal action against those responsible for financial misconduct in this regard.
The creation of a pension plan for railway employees and a mechanism to fulfil fertilizer requirement during Rabi season were also discussed.
The ECC decided to immediately resume operations of fertiliser factories. It resolved that the domestic demand for fertiliser will be fulfilled from the presently-inoperative factories
The first meeting of the newly reconstituted ECC had taken place last week. While no conclusive decisions were taken, the meeting appeared to be setting the stage for some serious business – to make fertiliser companies return Rs10 billion windfalls to the economy and to address the root cause of power sector circular debt. In today’s meeting, the committee also said that the matter of circular debt will be presented before Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Published in Daily Times, September 4th 2018.
