KARACHI: North Karachi’s industrialists have refused to pay Ad-hoc bills on average billing and demanded K-Electric to generate the bills according to the units used in the industries.
In an emergency meeting at the North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry (NKATI), President Muhammad Nasim Akhtar and other members unanimously approved the resolution that if the industries were sent average electricity bills instead of actual electricity units, they will not pay bills.
NKATI president, Nasim Akhtar has sent a letter to Governor Sindh Imran Ismail, informing him of the problems facing the industrialist community due to the lockdown to prevent the Coronavirus.
Nasim Akhtar said that industries have been shut down for the past 3 weeks. Karachi’s industrialists are facing serious cash flow problem, so during this difficult time, K-Electric’s announcement for average billing in the month of April seems to be a conspiracy to ruin industries of Karachi.
“Despite the closure of industries, average billing is very unfair as the industries are not using electricity due to shut down, so why should the industries pay the unused electricity bill”? he raised the question.
He added that it seems that K-Electric wants to destruction industries of Karachi, so that to stop industrial growth and at the same time the wheels of the Karachi economy will be jammed.
NKATI president informed Governor Sindh that K-Electric has installed smart meters in all industrial units, which does not require meter reader, hence smart metering can be done through the system. On the contrary, K-Electric is using average billing tactic to meet its revenue so that can make money from Karachiites, especially industries.
Nasim Akhtar sought cooperation from Governor Sindh and said that K-Electric should be compelled to send electricity bills to industries on the basis of actual units and bills should be prepared under smart meter readings.
He further said that that K-Electric has issued Industrial Support Package (ISP) Arrears in the last month bill and on our demand they have deferred theses arrears for a month which will be charged in the upcoming month bill, so we request Governor Sindh to issue necessary directives to remove the ISP arrears amount from the bill and to defer the bill of two months i.e. March & April to be recovered as an installment spread over six months and generate the bill of the North Karachi Industrial Area.