Those who don’t pay bills shouldn’t get electricity
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Equal treatment to honest consumers, thieves unacceptable
The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday said one of the reasons behind chronic energy crisis is policy of punishing honest consumers while rewarding the fraudulent.
Equal treatment to honest consumers of electricity and thieves is unacceptable, it said.
The people and departments that have developed the habit of not paying their bills should have no right to use electricity, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President PEW.
Around 1.4 billion people are living without electricity in the world with 800 million of them are from south Asia, he said.
Dr. Murtaza Mughal said that 2.6 billion people still use solid fuels globally as general access to energy is yet to find place in the UN Millennium Development Goals.
He said that Pakistan is included in the top ten countries facing severe energy crisis due multiple reasons which include broken commitments by the former government with the international lenders and lack of interest in collecting outstanding bills.
The electricity bill collection has declined by around seven percent in the first seven months of the current fiscal which has again pushed up the circular debt, he observed.
He said that importing energy remained hostage to politics which cannot be realised unless national interests are kept supreme.
Dr. Murtaza Mughal said that energy crisis would never settle unless government take action against offenders disregarding all political considerations.
