ISLAMABAD: Tribal Areas Electricity Supply Company (TESCO) paid an amount of Rs3.4 billion to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) without putting a burden on the domestic and commercial consumers.
TESCO Chief Executive Officer Shafiqul Hassan told APP on Thursday that the government was committed to providing relief to the people of tribal areas and therefore refrained from billing the domestic consumers, besides ensuring regular power supply to the industries.
He said TESCO paid the tax for the period of April 2013 to March 2019 despite the fact that “tribal areas were exempted from taxation”.
“The accounts of TESCO remained inactive in 2013, 2015 and 2016 due to which tax amount had to be paid,” he added.
Hassan informed that the statutory regulatory orders 1212(I)/2018 and 1213(I)/2018 gave exemption from federal taxes to erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Provincially Administered Tribal Areas.
He further said that electricity to domestic users was provided from the government subsidy, which was given to provide relief to the people of tribal areas. “However, given the available amount and resources, electricity could not be provided round the clock,” he admitted.
The TESCO chief said that the company was ensuring the supply of electricity to the consumers with the quota of 360 megawatts for Sehr, 360 megawatts for Iftar and 160 megawatts during the day.
The quota was fixed by regional control centre working under the National Transmission and Despatch Company, he added.
He said industries receive electricity throughout the day while domestic consumers get a supply of 10 hours approximately.
