Murad wants electricity duty to be directly deposited in govt account

Sindh’s chief minister on Thursday said that power distribution companies (DISCOs) in the province have been collecting electricity duty from consumers, but they have not been transferring those taxes to the government.CM Syed Murad Ali Shah, therefore, directed the energy department to evolve a mechanism through which the electricity duty is directly deposited in the provincial administration’s account.Shah presided over a meeting that was convened to discuss the payment of electricity bills to power DISCOs and the collection of duty from these companies. The chief executive said that on behalf of the Sindh government, DISCOs such as the K-Electric, the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) and the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) are collecting electricity duty from domestic and commercial consumers at the rate of 1.5 and 2 per cent of the power bills respectively.He said these taxes are not being transferred to the provincial administration, adding that according to a rough estimate, around Rs3 billion of electricity duty is being annually collected by the KE alone, and Hesco and Sepco are also collecting the taxes but not depositing them in the government’s account.The CM directed Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh to constitute a committee under Energy Secretary Musadiq Khan to reconcile the figures of electricity duty with DISCOs and direct them to deposit the amount in the government’s account. He also directed the minister to meet the State Bank governor and work on evolving a system under which electricity duty paid through power bills is deposited directly in the provincial administration’s account.Electricity billsShah was informed that there is an electricity bill of Rs580 million of the KMC that the government has to pay. He directed the energy minister to get the bill reconciled first and then pay it in instalments.The CM said all the electricity bills of the KE pertaining to the government departments, the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board, autonomous and semi-autonomous organisations, the district municipal corporations, the local bodies and other offices should be rigorously reconciled by the energy department and then paid.

from The News International - Karachi http://bit.ly/2JpkxNC