Government intensifies anti-power theft drive, recovers Rs105bn

As a result of an extensive campaign launched by the government and military leadership co-ordinated to combat power theft, 105 billion rupees have been recovered so far, as a result of initiatives spearheaded jointly by them. These initiatives have also resulted in the arrest of 83,000 thefts, as reported by Radio Pakistan on Sunday.  

There are a number of measures being taken by this government to address the power crisis and to create fiscal space in the economy as a whole.

It has been reported that more than Rs1.63 billion has been collected from power stealers in Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan, and Islamabad between June 30 and July 17. As a result of this operation an additional Rs430 million has been recovered from Peshawar, Hyderabad, Sukkur, and Quetta.

In the report, it is mentioned that the relevant institutions are determined to continue these operations until the country is totally free of electricity theft in the country, which has a financial crisis.

A massive campaign against electricity and gas theft was launched by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in March of this year.

According to Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who announced the campaign, there will be no discrimination during the campaign and all those responsible will be put behind bars, he said.

After chairing a meeting on this issue, Naqvi said in a post on X that he was working on this proactive initiative with the aim of curbing the rampant theft of essential utilities and ensuring fair distribution so that all citizens will be able to access them.

During their show “Jirga,” Federal Minister of Energy (Power Division) Awais Leghari revealed that power theft of Rs600 billion affects the national exchequer every year.

Power Minister Asif Ali Khan has told the media that the federal government had asked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Sindh to address power theft, as well as Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has volunteered to join the federal government in this endeavor on a voluntary basis.

According to Leghari, Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), which operates in the tribal areas of Peshawar, incurs annual losses of Rs137 billion. According to him, excluding Karachi, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan are lost to electricity theft every year in a total of Rs51 billion, Rs133 billion and Rs100 billion respectively, excluding Karachi from the equation. It is estimated that Rs65 billion worth of electricity is stolen from Peshawar, Mardan, Dera Ismail Khan, Nowshera, and Charsadda every year.

He defended the government’s decision not to single out any province as the perpetrator of electricity theft, pointing out that this crime has been politicized in the past, but assured that it would be addressed without a political backlash.

Timenews1 provided that information.