The Electricity Account 0707706450013 Consumer No AL-148880 is of my residence. The latest January 2009 Bill shows meter reading taken on 10 January showing Present at 26275 and Previous at 26275. The 250 units have been charged at Rs. 1300/-. The Bill date is 28 January whereas today Tuesday the 24 February physically the meter reading is at 25975 i.e. 300 units less than shown by KESC exactly 33 days ago. It will be seen that thus while KESC last month for December charge too heavily with the then Present reading, that reading too will still take time to reach. The KESC thus for the last 3-4 months has taken from my family so much in excess for non consumed units. It appears either due to heavy doze of good governance inducted in our public dealing offices are doing meter reading work sitting in their home or the so called foreign investors in order that their brought in investment, if actually there is any, recover back speedly by this novel way of charging in excess This is going on for the last 3-4 months that heavy excess is being charged to minus the effects of company mismanagement etc. From today 24th physical reading figure and that of shown by KESC on 10 January 300 units still in excess one can well imagine how much KESC must had charged us haram for the last 3-4 months. I addressed NEPRA about three months back but no body responded. In the West the newspapers are treated Ombudsmen for the public but unfortunately this senior citizen is on such a lower segment of the lower middle class that his cries during these month could find no room in this sacred space but once again a try.
this was extremely uncalled for...dont u think u should choose words carefully..a mishap to u doesnt mean that the Company is earning Haraam..that is an extreme act of generalization..which is Jhoot in its real sense..
KESC meter readers make such mistakes occasionally..dont wanna say that they are right to make mistakes but just wanna say that if u r reading bills for 1000 customers on a single day mistakes can happen..and this is Pakistan its not that we have POST for readings..I am not defending but please....give KESC a break..
further this is an accounting forum not peronal issues discussion forum or malign forum..
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, san" id="quote">quote<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">further this is an accounting forum not peronal issues discussion forum or malign forum.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
This area of the forum is for topics unrelated to the accounting profession, so one can talk about anything as long as it does not violate forum rules and guidelines.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, san" id="quote">quote<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Saracen</i>
<br />this was extremely uncalled for...dont u think u should choose words carefully..a mishap to u doesnt mean that the Company is earning Haraam..that is an extreme act of generalization..which is Jhoot in its real sense..
KESC meter readers make such mistakes occasionally..dont wanna say that they are right to make mistakes but just wanna say that if u r reading bills for 1000 customers on a single day mistakes can happen..and this is Pakistan its not that we have POST for readings..I am not defending but please....give KESC a break..
further this is an accounting forum not peronal issues discussion forum or malign forum..
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Dear Tracen, the sufferings of others is always a news for us unless we ourselves become a news. You might remember 3/4 years back a WAPDA retired officer committed suiside by jumping from 4th floor of a WAPDA office from which office he got retired. The story, as I remember, was that it was now about a year his pension papers were not ready. He was frequently visiting this pension office where earlier he himself was working and his now ex-colleauges were delaying finalising his pension papers. In frustration he jumped from the building. If my memories are not misguiding me in this age he had some medicines in his hand as being a retired he was sick. The facts were he tasted the same medicine which he was administering while sitting on the seat to other pensioners.
My father is a retired clerk of 80 years. 300 bogus units is a too big amount. Yes mistakes do happen but when those are mistakes. Please put yourself into my shoes and then feel the pain I have - this is what Honourable Mr. Justice Sardar Iqbal once stated. This is not the first month. For the last 4 months similar excessive bills without taking any meter reading are coming.
And this is not a mistake this is then deliberate a policy under which to pull out from subscribers as much as possible through different techniques like in advance.
This is an accounting forum though the Administrator has very kindly clarified this portion is for any topic community related. Just take the current 300 excessive unused units onlyl. Leave the units for the last three months. On these 300 units the KESC has not merely charged excess energy charges but many other things like tax - one withholding tax. You are aware being a member of accountancy forum that in case you get a profit of Rs. 200 from your bank, Rs. 20/- is deducted by the Bank towards withholding tax and to get it refunded you need to file an income tax return, attach photo copies of dozens and dozens of papers costing you not less than Rs. 100, a few dozen trips to the income tax department, after lot of visit one day you might get a cheque of Rs. 20/- as refund on encashment of which your bank will deduct Rs. 80/- as clerance charges from your account.
So say undue withholding tax on these extra unused units I am paying is never going to come back even when KESC will correct the mistake because withholding tax one having deducted and forwarded to income tax Department, the KESC can not get it back to revert the entry.
My dear this is the reason I say it Haram because it is consistently going on under some unwritten policy. I am sure you are not a resident of Karachi otherwise your comment would not had been this.
Javed,
The matter posted by you is quite factual and reflective of sentiments of common men affected by WAPDA, its companies and KESC.
Such organizations do not re-organize their systems of electric distribution, billing and collection. Distribution network is of course subject to robberies by so many of our society members who typically feel proud of how easily they have deceived the utility providers. They ignore that what impact it may leave to the pocket of others like Mr. Javed. Our politicised people, their activists, workers and others empowered to affect the social norms don't like to pay their dues. WAPDA was brought to its knees to bifurcate the PESCO (Peshawar) into two companies PESCO and TESCO (tribal areas). This was due to susutaining of losses of billions of rupees merely because the consumers don't pay the dues and if they are disconnected they come up with guns and amunition. Same is the case at the hubs of every political party.
Karachi is one of such places. We all know what I am saying. I had an opportunity to conduct financial and commercial due diligence evaluation of KESC along with other consultants some 4 or 5 years back. In those years its line losses (mainly reflecting theft of electricity) were almost 42%. It means out of every 100 units purchased or produced, 42 units were being lost most;y due to theft. People at large know that technically explainable line losses worldwide are not more than 9 to 12 percent based upon alminium conductor system (which KESC has).
To reduce the line losses (or to shift the burden of theft to others) companies start over-billing or estimated billing to rest of the consumers who pay their dues on time or to the governmental institutions who never bother to check the readings and whose bills are normally cleared through governmental adjuster (a section officer appointed for this purpose).
KESC is not merely a distribution company like WAPDA's entities. It also has its own generation facilities. The refundable taxes like input sales tax which it pays on procurement of fuel oil are denied by taxation authorities with the objection that the ultimate output tax (imposed on electric units) falls short of the input by almost 42% (after taking into account value addition elements). Therefore claims of refunds should also be reduced by 42%. This creates more stresses and more inclination to suffer the gentlemen. I agree the sufferers are always those who are regular with their payments and take the burden of social responsibilities.
In so many cases the meters installed are dead stop from the day one. It should be noted that KESC always recovers the capital cost of meter, wire and installing material from the consumer beforehand along with security. Therefore it is KESC's responsibility to note the dead stop meters and change them. However, instead of doing a right job they start issuing estimated bills. Normally people don't find time to check such readings and consider such billing is genuine while it is in fact estimated.
Ultimately when they realize the issue and request the KESC to change the meter, KESC throws all the burden of proof on the consumer, changes the meter after recovering the capital cost once again and issues a detection bill of thousands of rupees. These detection bills are reduced after taking bribes or if recovered again help reducing line losses since these are the bills against no genuine consumption of units.
So this saga is very long and painful. Not only the KESC but we all, our politicians, the people who are stealing such free electricty or have slowed down the meters, or the people who are working for KESC or other companies are responsible for all the inconveniences.
We need to have awareness of social responsibilities which I don't think will come in foreseeable future. Sufferers are always the regular ones and responsible ones.
It's weird to raise objections on such topics of social significance. I know so many people speak without knowing the facts.
Regards,
KAMRAN.
Dear Mr. Kamran - I wish to express something out of the context of this Forum. Just something personal. I a senior citizen. I lost my one eye three years back in an operation. In the second after operation I have hardly 25% reading visibility. I can hardly recognised someone face unless someone speaks to me then I recognise by voice. However WITH GRACE OF ALLAH i can properly read. Whatever you see written by me is just playing the key board due to my long experience of typing. I do not and can not make any draft, I do not check what has been written but just post. During the last 30-35 years I have never given any rishwat for any of my genuine work. I got many laws of the land and procedures changes with my this single hand eg (i) amendment in foreign exchange rules (ii) through supreme court compelling the banks to make dormant accounts public (iii) 24 hours banking booths at our airports at international departures. During all this period I got threats to keep my mouth shut but ALLAH helped me.
I am not computer literate. Just playing with with it for reading newspapers etc I got some non technical experience. During this exercise I came to know about Discussion Forums. I became member of not less than 100 Forums (not at one single time) but all disappointed me. The crux on Pakistani Discussion Forumns is either they contain mostly "modern burger style" topics or are those the administrators of which themselves dod not read. For example you go to paksitanlawyer.com. On the internet directories you will see this Forum has been created by lawyers to help create "awareness", "Recognise your rights" etc. But you see some people have posted their problems but these lawyers have never ever given a single advice to such suffering people. If you minutely see the post you will see on some readership is hardly 1 or 2 which means only the member posting it or one or two others read it. Thew administration team must not be less than 6-8 people, which means even they do not read the posts of their own forums. That is why I become a member on seeing a new Pakistani forum, after sometime I discard it. Most the Forums are not trustable because after six months or a year they disappear.
Your's is the only one on which I always saw serious issues and serious readership. Last year for a time a short period came when this Forum was bombard with commercial advertisement type Post but you soon took note of it. On this post your views were very nice when you said this porition is open for any topics.
What I want to say is my heart felt feelings that (i) you have kept this Forum clean (ii) you are the only administrator of any Pakistani Forum (based in Pakistan or abroad) who read properly everything and yourself put you remarks. It is remarkable. Please accept regards and appreciation of this senior citizen.
Now if it has no repercussions can you introduce youself?
By the way taking opportunity of this, can I suggest you which suggestion I gave to many including to the adminstrators of
www.pakistanlawyer.com that you pick up those posts which you feel are of collective interest of the community, forward it to the converned Goverment Department on your letter head seeking their comments and post those on this Forum. This senior citizen based on experience can tell you many many problems of the people will get solved. Individual's writing to a governemnt department does not get move, but if a columnist, if a social forum like you writes to the same department, despite the "invisible good goverance" still they move and try to respond such forums.
My prayers for you.
Javed Sb,
I think something has reflected a wrong image of mine in your eyes or you mistakenly addressed this post to me. I am not the administrator of this forum. I am a poster and regular visitor just like you.
I agree this forum has unqiue features and is well managed. I must appreciate the Admin for his nice efforts. However, we don't know who owns, runs and maintains this forum. Some people have even doubted on the idea behind creation of this forum but this habit is common in human beings. We always find negative aspects first of all.
I appreciate that the Admin will provide you the detailed answer to your post and will also respond on your suggestions.
I also take this opportunity to appreciate all the efforts you have made in your life and all the issues raised by you for social and moral awareness of the forum members.
Best regards,
KAMRAN.