KESC being looted by PEPCO

I had long suspected that the people of Karachi were being exploited but I had no idea of the scale of looting until I read an article entitled “Inflated bills, outstanding dues” by Sabihuddin Ghausi (DAWN EBR 17 March 2008). He writes “Hydro power is the cheapest source of energy and till privatization of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation Wapda was charging on the basis of a mean cost of whole mix that came to Rs3.69 a unit. Pepco is now demanding Rs9 plus for a unit”.

Now compare this with what Indians have to pay. This is from an article by Brahma Chellaney in “The Hindu” of 17th March: “Escalating construction costs have resulted in all the newer nuclear plants pricing their electricity at between 270 and 285 paise a kilowatt hour (kWh). Compare those tariffs with Reliance Energy’s coal-fired Sason plant project, which has contracted to sell power at 119 paise a kWh, or even with the poorly-run Dadri plant, which supplies electricity to Delhi at 225 paise a kWh, although coal has to be hauled for the plant over long distances.”

I don’t think the managers in KESC or Pepco know that electricity is so cheap (Rs. 1.19 to Rs. 2.85 per unit) in India. So now we know why KESC is resorting to daily load shedding of eight hours: for every unit that it buys from Pepco, it has to pay Rs. 9 instead of Rs. 3.69 that it was paying to WAPDA.