ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: As many as 7,543 First Information Reports (FIRs) have been registered against electricity thieves and 1,150 persons have been arrested, the managing director PEPCO told a meeting in Islamabad on Monday.
The meeting was presided over by the Federal Minister for Power Omar Ayub Khan and attended by high officials of Power Division and PEPCO to review the performance of power sector in wake of the targets assigned to various organizations.
The minister was briefed by the managing director PEPCO told that a total of 15,489 cases of electricity theft have been detected since launch of campaign by the Power Division on the direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The managing director PEPCO told that 35.638 million units have been charged from the consumers on account of theft detection amounting to Rs 564.570 million of which Rs 116.840 million have been recovered.
The power minister directed the concerned authorities for quick registration of FIRs against electricity thieves and directed the PEPCO to monitor and execute correct application of relevant law in the FIRs to bring the culprits to justice.
The minister expressed the resolve to take all necessary steps for making the electricity theft an expensive and cumbersome process in order to save billions of rupees for the national exchequer.
In addition, he directed that the DISCOs performance will be reviewed in the next week on the targets assigned on various accounts including recovery, lines losses, improvement of distribution network etc. He also expressed his strong resolve to give merit and best performance a preference in the power sector.