Minister offers prepaid meters to power consumers

MULTAN: While power consumers in Pakistan have been  up in arms over inflated bills and repeated increase in government taxes, the power minister today offered to the consumers to replace their old metres with prepaid ones.

Minister Owais Ahmed Khan Laghari had earlier ruled out the possibility of terminating the agreements that have been signed with independent power producers with the public saying they are sole responsible for the rising cost of electricity.

Speaking to media persons at the headquarters of Multan electric supply company, the Minister said that there us a need to introduce prepaid meters for the power consumers.

He said the major issue for the people as well as the government was the theft of electricity. He told the media that the ratio of the power theft in the Multan division was 15.6 percent. He said the government was giving free hand to the distribution companies to take action and eliminate power pilferage.

The Minister also said that the government had restructured the boards of the distribution companies in order to bring reforms and streamline their working. 

He also said that the government would strictly implement the recent relief announced by the Punjab government for power consumers using 200 units to 500 units per month. He said that the Punjab government had allocated 45 billion rupees for the relief to be given to the consumers of Punjab and the capital territory of Islamabad for the months of July and August. 

Under this relief, announced by Chief Minister Mariam Nawaz, rupees 14 relief will be given on each unit of electricity to the consumers in the two months. He warned the distribution companies to implement the relief in letter and spirit without compromising even on one unit of power.