WAPDA claims nothing but false figures: Naqvi

By Waqar Gillani

LAHORE: Former member (power) of the Water And Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Syed Tanzeem Hussain Naqvi has accused the current WAPDA management of “failing to achieve any progress and tarnishing the authority’s image in the eyes of international agencies”.

WAPDA announced on Saturday it is to sue Mr Naqvi for alleged malpractices.

Mr Naqvi told Daily Times on Sunday the WAPDA management’s claims that its revenue has doubled and its line losses reduced by 17 percent were “deliberately misleading”. These figures, he said, were shown up by WAPDA’s own technical progress reports. “The figures were introduced to deliberately mislead the public, government and the World Bank (WB) and International Monitory Fund (IMF). “WAPDA line losses have actually been reduced only by one percent from 26 percent to 25 percent in the last four years.” He said the 6.5 percent increase in units lost during the last four years showed that theft or losses have increased. “If WAPDA’s claim that there has been a 17 percent decrease in line losses are true, that would mean a Rs 30 billion increase in profit. But the progress reports show a loss of billions.” He said WAPDA revenue had not increased by 100 percent in real terms. “The General Sales Tax (GST) accounts for 29 percent of this,” he said.

Mr Naqvi said tariff had increased from Rs 2.36 per unit to Rs 3.52 per unit, meaning 49.2 percent of the revenue increase was due to the tariff hike. “12.4 percent of load growth is due to new connections. So of the 71 percent revenue increase, total automatic increase comes to 61.6 percent (49.2+12.4%), and the real revenue increase is only 9.4 percent.”

He said if all was well in WAPDA, the WB and IMF should have recognized its performance. “International agencies have declared WAPDA inefficient, saying it has failed to control expenditures and line losses.

“WAPDA expenditures and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) payments increased from Rs 53 billion to 115 Rs billion. If WAPDA had controlled its expenditures, it would have not only been in profit but it would have been able to reduce tariff by up to Rs 1.50 per unit.”

Mr Naqvi alleged that the increase in expenditure could not be justified by load growth alone. “It is due to mismanagement, inefficiency and fraud. They should be checked by the auditor general of Pakistan,” he said.

Of WAPDA’s claim that Mr Naqvi was falsely accusing it of malpractice and he had a corrupt past, Mr Naqvi said he was willing to discuss these issues at any forum. “I’m sure an open discussion would expose the management’s deficiency to the public and the government,” he concluded.

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