ISLAMABAD: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s Businessmen Panel (BMP) has stressed the need for large scale structural changes in power sector, controlling line losses of DISCOs by using modern technology, and customer-oriented business approach, as the public exchequer has been facing loss of billions of rupees by the power distribution companies. FPCCI former president and BMP Chairman Mian Anjum Nisar stated that due to high electricity rates, power theft will become rampant as the tariff was unaffordable to consumers. Quoting the media report, he observed that that the performance of distribution companies (DISCOs) throughout 2023-24 remained very poor, and the expected power sector reforms were not achieved. Given the ongoing poor performance. DNA
it is apparent that, under the existing circumstances, the current DISCO setup is unlikely to be able to deliver the desired results. No significant improvement has been witnessed on part of some DISCOs in this regard. During FY2023-24, the overall actual losses of DISCOs were 17.21% against the actual loss of 15.68% in FY 2022-23.
The actual T&D losses are much higher than the allowed T&D losses, which is 11.31%. Unfortunately, the majority of DISCOs have not adhered to the NEPRA given targets, except FESCO, GEPCO, and K-Electric which have managed to keep their losses below the levels or equal to targets set by NEPRA. However, other DISCOs have exceeded these limits, which contributed to a substantial loss of over Rs165 billion to the national exchequer.
Anjum Nisar said that it is an undeniable fact that DISCOs are deliberately drawing less power than their demand, despite being provided with an adequate quota on account of loadshedding based on Aggregate Technical & Commercial losses policy.
The AT&C based loadshedding is still being carried out and DISCOs particularly PESCO, QESCO, SEPCO and HESCO have considered it an easy path for them to manage the recovery rather than to put the efforts and ensure maximum collection.
