Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Monday revealed the latest figures about overbilling and promised to continue with a crackdown on power theft, as people in Pakistan are crushed by a stubborn inflation which has been exacerbated by rising energy costs. 

Addressing a press conference, he said not only affluent power and state consumers but also poor households were a victim of overbilling, adding that the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) had charged a total of additional 830 million units – a practice to hide the failure to check line losses and power theft and burden the people who face the consequences of an inefficient system. 

Naqvi admitted that electricity tariffs were too high and said that the authorities were acting vigorously against those involved in power theft and especially mentioned the efforts being made in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan in this connection where the practice is more rampant.

He praised the FIA for the role being played in the ongoing campaign against electricity theft and the related matters in the power sector, adding that the federal agency had exposed the overbilling. 

“You don’t know that the [actual] bill is Rs20,000 and you are paying Rs40,000,” he told reporters and added that even the ordinary consumers using up to 300 units had not been spared.

The FIA DG was facing extreme pressure but the anti-power theft drive won’t be stopped at any cost, the interior minister said.