President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday said consumers of electricity are braving the double-edged sword of continued tariff hike and secret overbilling by the power sector.
Consumers are deprived of billions of rupees every month to make for the losses, inefficiency and corruption in the power sector, he said. Mian Zahid Hussain said that honest consumers are being punished for power theft and reduction in demand due to its high price.
Secret overbilling: power companies looting unsuspecting consumers
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said power sector is losing over a billion rupees per day but power distribution companies are less interested in improving governance, initiate reforms and contain theft as well as losses.
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These companies have started distributing losses on unsuspecting consumers through overbilling which is burdening poor masses and contributing to a hike in the price of everything, he added.
The business leader said that the business community can only dream of competitive electricity tariff so that they can compete with regional countries in the international market.
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Different governments have poured hundreds of billion in a bid to improve the power sector but to no avail, he said, adding that presently demand is less than supply but no city in the country is immune from load-shedding and fluctuation.
GVS News Desk with additional input by other sources