After court order, LESCO starts issuing revised bills to textile millers

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has stopped power distribution companies (DISCOS) — Lahore Electric Supply Company and Faisalabad Electric Supply Company — from charging arrears with retrospective effect till further orders.

Following the court’s decision [taken on Friday], the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) has now started issuing revised electricity bills to textile millers, thus removing additional surcharges that were being charged to the millers with retrospective effect from January 2019.

As per details, APTMA on Thursday had filed a writ petition against the federal government, Ministry of Energy and DISCOs with a plea that the Power Division had issued a notification on January 13 to DISCOS, “wrongfully” asking them to charge the exports-oriented textile sector with additional surcharges, including positive fuel adjustments (PFA), financial cost surcharges and Neelum-Jhelum surcharges, with retrospective effect. The textile body maintained that the Power Division was not mandated to take such decisions.

On Friday, APTMA’s counsel had requested the court to nullify the act of charging additional surcharges by the MoE.

Hearing the case, Justice Qasim Khan inquired about the incumbent energy minister as well as others looking after power-related matters in the country. The government’s counsel replied that PM’s Adviser on Petroleum Nadeem Babar was assisting the minister on matters pertaining to the energy sector.

“I have heard Nadeem Babar is the owner of an independent power plant (IPP) himself…is he the same person we are talking about? the judge asked.

Unsatisfied with the government’s response, Justice Khan expressed displeasure over Nadeem Babar’s appointment as PM’s special assistant and remarked, “It seems that the cat is protecting the milk.”

He continued, “The appointment of such a person as PM’s adviser who has personal stakes (conflict of interest) in the industry is not a good omen for departments. In fact, they are the ones sucking the blood of the departments.”

After 45 minutes of detailed arguments, the court suspended the notification regarding recovery of different surcharges from textile millers and issued notices to the federal government, LESCO, FESCO and MoE, seeking a reply in this regard by March 10.

The court also ordered all electricity cases pending before different benches to be clubbed and forwarded to the chief justice for the constitution of a larger bench.

The LHC directed the DISCOs to recalculate the amount of electricity bills by excluding the surcharges levied through the impugned notifications. It gave the distribution companies 10 days’ time to issue the revised bills.

Justice Qasim Khan is a senior puisne judge who was appointed as chief justice of the Lahore High court by President Arif Alvi on Friday (Feb 28).