Key Takeaways
- Energy Minister Leghari warns Discos against imposing excessive bills.
- All detection bills to be issued through centralised online portal.
- Manual billing by field staff banned, treated as misconduct.
Energy Minister Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari has issued stringent directives to electricity distribution companies (Discos) to curb arbitrary billing practices, warning that no arbitrary charges will be levied on consumers.
At a meeting with Discos’ boards of directors on Friday, Leghari issued formal instructions to implement a comprehensive reform framework aimed at protecting consumers while ensuring honest officers can perform their duties against power theft.
The minister stated that while curbing electricity theft remains a national priority, innocent citizens should not be subjected to arbitrary financial burdens.
Under the new framework, the discretionary authority of field staff is being strictly regulated to ensure that no hurdles are created for honest officers performing their duties.
The Power Division has mandated that all Discos issue detection bills exclusively through the centralised online portal developed by Power Information Technology Company (PITC).
Manual and discretionary issuance of detection bills by field staff and sub-divisional officers (SDOs) has been prohibited, with such actions now treated as severe misconduct.
Issuing manual bills will be officially treated as strict disciplinary proceedings and major penalties against the responsible officials and staff.
Comprehensive proposed amendments to the Consumer Service Manual (CSM) will be submitted in the coming days to bind every process within clearly defined timelines.
Under the new framework, replacing defective or burnt meters immediately, or within a maximum of two billing cycles, will be mandatory, and average billing during this period will be restricted to a maximum of two months.
In cases where a meter is established to be running slow or fast, recovery or credit adjustments will be confined strictly to the preceding two billing cycles.
The chargeable period for illegal abstraction by general consumers is proposed to be fixed at three billing cycles.
