By: Zulfiqar Ali (Kashmir Investigation Team)
MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Kashmir Finance Department has banned all departments from paying electricity bills on an average basis.
This ban has been imposed at a time when the Azad Kashmir government departments and institutions have an outstanding electricity bill of Rs 34 billion.
According to the notification of the Finance Department, “All departments will not pay electricity bills on an average basis in the future.”
Rather, those departments in which electricity meters are not installed will pay the monthly bill after getting the meter installed and bear the expenses incurred on the installation of the meter from the ‘Electricity Expenses’.
“Also, the Electricity Department will not directly request funds from the Finance Department to pay the outstanding electricity bills of all departments, but the concerned department will itself request funds after reaching an understanding with the Electricity Department,” the notification added.
According to the documents of the Electricity Department, as of March this year, the government departments and institutions of Azad Kashmir have outstanding electricity bills of Rs 33 billion 85 crore 13 lakh 92 thousand.
According to the data given in the documents, as of June 2024, the government departments and institutions of the Azad Kashmir government had arrears of Rs 28,669,330,000, which increased by Rs 5,194,590,000 in the first nine months of this year, i.e., by March 2025.
This means an increase of 18.11% in the first nine months of the current financial year.
A senior Azad Kashmir official said that one reason for these arrears is that some government departments or institutions unnecessarily consume more electricity, and the other reason is that many government offices and institutions do not have official meters installed, and the electricity department has been sending average electricity bills to these departments and institutions, which are sometimes more than the electricity consumed.
Apparently, this is the reason why the finance department has banned the payment of average electricity bills and imposed a condition of paying electricity bills after installing meters.
Since the government departments and institutions of Azad Kashmir have to pay arrears of about 34 billion rupees in electricity bills, apparently in view of this, the Finance Department has also imposed a ban that the Electricity Department will not directly mobilize funds from the Finance Department to pay the electricity arrears owed by government departments, but the relevant departments will mobilize funds themselves after reaching an understanding with the Electricity Department.
This means that each government department will pay its dues after reaching an understanding with the Electricity Department.
Now the question arises as to how and in what manner the arrears of about 34 billion rupees will be paid, and where will the money come from for this? At present, the government is reluctant to answer this question.
However, critics say that the Finance Department’s ban on payment of average electricity bills and the condition of paying bills by installing meters is a significant development.
They say that some departments used more electricity but had lower electricity bills, and there were some that used less electricity but were given higher electricity bills. He says that there is no doubt that the electricity department has been sending high electricity bills to consumers who have not installed meters to show less technical losses.
At present, according to the documents of the electricity department in Azad Kashmir, there are 26 to 28 percent technical losses, but some experts say that these technical losses are higher.
Critics say that after this step of the finance department, there is a possibility of improvement in this situation.
