KARACHI - K-Electric has rejected the allegation of excessive billing as baseless.
“KE, Pakistan’s only vertically integrated private utility, refutes any such allegation,” KE spokesperson said on Thursday and added, “The unfounded allegations are contrary to factual position and stems from lack of understanding of performance-based Multi Year Tariff (MYT) regime and regulatory framework.”
He also repudiated the perception of overburdening the consumers of Karachi.
“The consumer-end tariff is uniform all across the country along with the slabs of electricity which are also implemented across Pakistan,” the spokesperson said, and added, “K-Electric confirms that neither any change has been made in the tariff charged from the consumers nor any benefit denied to them.”
He further said that KE ensured complete transparency in bill issuance by complying with regulatory guidelines.
“In cases where theft, meter tampering or illegal abstraction is detected, billing is done based on prescribed regulatory guidelines. Around 83% of the cases decided by the Wafaqi Mohtasib (Federal Ombudsman) in the past 6 months from Oct 2016 to March 2017 were in favour of K-Electric,” he elaborated.
“K-Electric has invested significantly in technological upgradation, including implementation of SAP IS-U, the world’s leading system for billing and use of handheld devices for meter reading which ensures efficiency, eliminates human intervention and creates transparency,” the spokesperson said, and added, “KE has also been endorsed by various national and regional stakeholders for ensuring best practices of disclosure and transparency in its reporting.”
The power utility has made significant improvements through investments of more than $1.2 billion across generation, transmission and distribution segments since 2009.
KE has to date not paid out any dividend and the profits declared in annual audited accounts have been reinvested into the business. “This in turn has benefited consumers through improvement in supply and quality of service. KE continues to have a vision of loadshedding free city and requests the community at large to help curb the menace of theft to help achieve this vision,” the spokesperson concluded.
