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JS body asks for list of power thieves

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
A parliamentary body yesterday asked the power ministry to send a list of the individuals, industries and organisations accused of power theft, a major reason for the financial losses of the state-owned electricity distribution authorities.
The parliamentary standing committee on public undertakings at a meeting also blasted the officials of the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (Desa) for systems loss, mismanagement and irregularities.
Meeting sources said State Minister for Power Iqbal Hassan Mahmood came down heavily on the Desa for its mismanagement.
"Desa could not reduce its systems loss and improve management. Its systems loss is now 22.59 percent," Committee Chairman Abdul Alim told reporters after the meeting.
"A small percentage of the systems loss is due to technical reasons. But pilfering is the main cause for the huge amount of losses," he added.
However, the officials of Dhaka
Electricity Supply Company (Desco) told the meeting that they have initiated action against power pilferage. The Desco already fined a number of companies for power pilferage, the committee chairman said quoting the Desco officials.
The committee asked the Power Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources to submit a list of people or companies involved in power thefts at its next meeting on April 25.
Both the committee members and the Desa officials at the meeting said meter readers do not prepare bills properly creating scopes for evading electricity bills. A number of companies use a large amount of power but do not pay the actual tariff, they said.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Star last December, the state minister for power said Desa was groaning under the burden of a huge financial mismatch of Tk 2,500 crore due to decade-long thefts by its officials and employees.
He said Desa owes Tk 4,000 crore to Power Development Board
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(PDB), compared to only Tk 1,500 crore that public and private sector power consumers owe to Desa.
"No trace of the rest of the money [Tk 2,500 crore]," acknowledged the minister regretting that many of the Desa engineers own four to five houses each in the city.
"In 10 years Desa has lost Tk 10,000 crore to widespread thefts and failed to pay the bills of PDB, handicapping the latter in refurbishing its old power units," Iqbal lamented.