Islamabad: Power companies are increasing their circular debts by 50 billion monthly and 600 billion annually due to non-recovery from defaulters, power theft and other incompetences.
According to details, the latest data on power distribution companies shows that the incompetent DISCOs are increasing their circular debts by more than Rs 600 billion annually, which has now increased to Rs 2.467 trillion.
This shows that the top government officials have failed miserably in preventing losses from power recovery and theft and despite claims of more than 92.44% recovery, DISCOs are increasing their circular debts by 50 billion monthly.
The official looking after the affairs of the discos says that to show the improvement in the overall recovery in the collection of electricity bills from the consumers, 10-15 percent recovery is made by the discos every year through overbilling.
The important thing is that the discos have also failed to recover their dues from private and public sector consumers, which if compared to the collections of Rs 1.189 trillion in 2021, has now increased by 69.64 percent to Rs 2.017 trillion. However, if compared to the collections of Rs 1.727 trillion in 2023, the total dues of the discos are 16.79 percent more, which is only Rs 467 billion more than the circular debt.
According to the news, persistent defaulters, including big political and industrial figures, owe DISCOs Rs1.094 trillion and the amount that the system has to recover from persistent defaulters has increased by Rs194 billion to Rs1.094 trillion in 2023-24.
