ISLAMABAD Masses in the country at present are victim from both sides as they are suffering from the unscheduled and long hours power outages and at the same time are forced to pay double amount electricity bills as compared to previous years corresponding month. The Nation has reliably learnt that in June last year the electricity bills were not more than Rs 3,000 for a standard user but now the bill amount of the same users is touching the figure of Rs 5000 or even more. The government had been increasing electricity during the whole year in different times under different heads. The claimed increase might be not more than 25 per cent but the cumulative effect on the consumers bills is showing an increase of not less than 80 per cent. It is also pertinent to mention here that there are some increases in tariffs not claimed by the government and usually are done by Nepra under the head of fuel adjustment. Another increase was the 6 per cent raise in power tariffs done by the government that was given the name of surcharge. So that is not included in power tariff increase but obviously that affects the bills more than seven per cent as that was done in three slots of 2 per cent each month from April to June. The present situation of many areas of the country shows that the consumers are forced to pay double amounts for no electricity as they are suffering from long hours loadshedding. In many areas when the shortfall crosses 5,000 megawatt masses have to face about 18-hours long power outages. It is also pertinent to mention here that the power shortfall this year crossed 7,000 megawatt for the first time in the history of the country. The government on the other side is not taking any step for the uninterrupted power supply. The government has also proved failure in controlling line losses that are around 20 per cent, might be the highest in the world. The line losses are also one of the major reasons behind increasing power tariff for the innocent consumers as these losses include power loss due to weak infrastructure and power theft as well.