Power distributors virtually scuttled a government move to check electricity theft and boost revenue with prepaid metering to plug the scope of meter tampering.
Officials said Saturday the remedial move failed to make any headway as the power distributors were reluctant, for reasons best known to them.
They said although the government had approved at least six projects with a total cost of Tk 11.47 billion within last two to seven years, the power-distributing agencies failed to spend even 1.0 per cent of their allocated funds.
Asked about the procrastination, a senior Power Division official said actually most of the power-distributing agencies were reluctant to install the prepaid meters.
"If the prepaid meters are set up, the system loss will be checked and the government's revenue earnings will go up significantly," he said.
"Besides, tampering with meters or the stealing of electricity bypassing the meters by the customers with the help of some corrupt employees will also be cut," the official said.
If the prepaid meters are installed, the subscribers would have to pay bill before their electricity utilisation, thus thwarting overbilling by doctoring meter-reading on power consumption.
The Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC) and Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) had taken up two projects three years back for installing prepaid meters. The execution rate is seen "zero".
Besides, BPDB undertook another project in 2009, the execution rate of which is a peanut 1.0 per cent after long six and a half years, the sources said.
West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited (WZPDCL), the Rural Electrification Board (REB) and the DPDC have also failed to make a start on the physical work under their three separate prepaid metering projects in last one to three years from the approval of the schemes.
According to the officials familiar with the projects, the BPDB had taken a Tk 1.37 billion "Prepaid metering for distribution in southern Zone Chittagong" in 2009.
But the agency has spent only Tk 14 million, 1.0 per cent of the total cost, in last six and a half years. The project period will expire this coming December.
The Board had undertaken another Tk 132.49 billion "Prepaid metering fo+r distribution in Comilla and Mymensingh" project in July 2013 with the financial support of German donor agency Kfw.
"The BPDB has even failed to invite tender for procuring the meters in last three years. It has failed to spend even one per cent of its total cost," a senior government official said.
The DPDC had undertaken Tk 173.36 billion cost "Prepaid metering project for six NOCS division under DPDC" three years back in 2013 with the financial support of the Kfw.
"The state-owned company has failed to complete the tender process for procuring the meters to be installed for the electricity consumers. It has spent even less than 1.0 per cent of its total project cost in last three years," the official said.
The project is scheduled to be completed in December next year.
The state-owned company undertook another Tk 2.24-billion-cost "Prepaid metering project for 5 NOCS division under DPDC" in January last year with the financial support from government's internal resources.
A Power Division official said the DPDC had recently invited tender for procuring the meters for its consumers.
The official said implementation of the Tk 424.3 million "Prepaid metering project for Khulna City (phase-1)" of the WZPDCL was going on.
He said the company installed nearly 5,000 prepaid meters during last two years of its project tenure while the rest 26,000 meters would be installed by June 2018.
The REB launched a Tk 4.36 billion "Installing prepaid e-meters in Dhaka divisional zone under the Rural Electrification activities project (phase-1)" in July 2015 with financial support of the Asian Development Bank.
According to the document, the REB had failed to spend even a single penny till March this year. The cut-off time for completion of the project is June 2018.
A Planning Commission official said they had monitored some prepaid metering projects whose progress is so terrible that the implementing agencies even failed to spend 1.0 per cent of their cost over the years.
When contacted, Project Directors of two projects under the BPDB and the DPDC did not respond to this correspondent.
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Source: The Financial Express