Power theft to be made more stringent cognizable offence

The federal govt. has decided to expedite efforts for approval of amendment to the Pakistan Penal Code Act, aimed at making electricity theft a more stringent cognizable offence. The actual losses of Distribution companies (Discos) stood at 17.82% during FY20 against Nepra’s allowed losses of 15.53%. According to Secretary Power to reduce losses by 2% in the next two years a 5.6 improvement in the recovery to take it to 96% has been envisaged by the govt. Power sector’s circular debt has already reached over PKR 2.3Tn of which 25% share is related to Discos inefficiencies including theft.

15/3/2021