Do not be mistaken by the title of the column. This piece is not about the power corridor politics. It is about power bill politics.
Just like you, and them, I am also dealing with really high electricity bills. A friend said, “We use electricity to make our lives comfortable but the department bills us to make us uncomfortable”.
The media tells the stories of inflated bills. My domestic help, who hardly makes around Rs50,000 a month, got hit with an electricity bill of Rs18,000. Over in Mirpur city of Azad Kashmir, there’s a movement gaining attention as people have decided not to pay their electricity bills until the government stops raising the prices unfairly. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. If they refuse to pay, their electricity might get shut off, leading to conflicts and a chaotic situation. And now, we’ve just heard that electricity rates are going up by another Rs2 per unit. It’s clear that the public is pushing back against this. While we’re celebrating Pakistan’s Independence Month, we can’t ignore the fact that there’s a lot of trouble.
We need to ask: how can we stop the bills causing this mess? How can we make sure the bills are fair? It’s not just the government’s problem; it’s hurting all of us.
I run offices in Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi to make sure that the newspaper is regularly published and delivered to you on time. Over the year, I have seen the unfortunate record of having the highest electricity rates per unit in a year, and this makes Pakistan the worst billing country in Asia – an impressive thirteen types higher. It’s a fact that we’re being heavily taxed on this. In a country where most people don’t earn a lot, where there’s a lot of unemployment and poverty, these high electricity costs feel like a big burden on all of us. It’s not just affecting individual families; it’s causing prices to go up for everything. Even things like vegetables and fruits, which don’t need electricity, have become really expensive.
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As of now, the caretaker prime minister has chosen to remain silent, failing to provide any reassurance that he’s committed to tackling the increasing inflation. The current surge of worries about rising electricity bills serves as a clear sign. If these concerns continue to be ignored and the government keeps raising the rates, the people’s worries will naturally intensify. This presents a significant challenge – how can a caretaker government address these problems without resorting to political tactics? This is a question that Prime Minister Anwar ul Haq must wrestle with.
One solution that the caretaker government has proposed is transferring power distribution companies to the provinces. However, the effectiveness of this decision remains uncertain. There’s a valid concern that this move might worsen the situation rather than improve it. The main problem in the electricity transmission system is line losses, which result in the theft of billions of rupees worth of electricity every month. Recently, I learned about a pivotal reason behind the exorbitant cost of electricity in Pakistan – rampant electricity theft. The people who pay their bills are burdened by this discrepancy. Another significant factor behind the inflated electricity bills is the government’s intention to fund its expenses through these bills. The level of taxes imposed on electricity bills is unparalleled globally. The total of these taxes matches the actual electricity costs. Throughout history, the government has used electricity and fuel as convenient sources of revenue. However, the most significant casualty of this strategy has been the unbearable inflation. There’s no mention in the IMF agreement about increasing taxes on electricity bills. Nonetheless, the government has turned this into a primary source of revenue, leading to the imposition of taxes. For example, there’s a tax on electricity bills to support PTV and Radio Pakistan. Whether it is electricity itself or the billing process, there’s clear evidence of significant manipulation taking place. This situation is causing widespread anxiety among the public. If reasonable solutions fail to materialize, the only remaining option could be increasing prices. Yet, pursuing that path might test the public’s patience to the limit.
