Lesco line losses BoD`s admission gives the lie to official figure
By Our Staff Reporter
2015-12-23
LAHORE: Contrary to the official claim of 12pc line losses, the actual figure is more than 22pc and the issue of overand under-billing has worsened, admits Musadik Malik, chairman of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) board of directors.
Speaking at a meeting, Malik claimed that the company was claiming only 12pc losses but if all things are factored in, the domestic losses go up to 22pc.
`The industrial losses are just one per cent,` he said. And in order to cover up the situation, overandunder-billing has become norm, he said while expressing the management and the BoD`s resolve to set things right.
`This public admission of both crisis is the first step towards recognising the problems and overcoming these,` he said.
As first step towards transparency, he said, the company was launching a website on which each consumer can see exact position of his sub-division and what is the line losses, recovery and loadshedding status. A consumer can also compare the quantum of loadshedding with other sub-divisions; for example, he can see what`s the durationof loadshedding in the residential area of the chief minister and how it compares with his sub-division.
`As additional measure, the consumers would start getting pictures of their meters on the time and day of reading for billing purposes within next three months. Within 24 hours of reading, the consumer would receive an SMS stating his meter reading, with an option of accepting or rejecting it. In case of rejection, his return message would be delivered to a monitoring cell which would independently verify the reading. In case of misstatement, the official responsible for it would be taken to the task,` he said.He also took it as an opportunity to announce a centre of excellence that would work round the clock and receive suggestions from those interested in improving the working of Lesco.
Later, he spoke to 85 newlyinducted sub-division officers (SDOs) of Lesco and asked them to tal
Earlier, Lesco Chief Executive Officer Qaiser Zaman assured the board of all-out support in its endeavour to improve working of the company and root out corruption.
