Ordinance making power theft cognisable offence promulgated

ISLAMABAD: Presid­ent Arif Alvi on Wednes­day promulgated an ordinance making stealing of electricity a cognisable offence and empowering power distribution companies to get the people involved in power theft arrested.

According to the Presi­d­ency, the president throu­­gh the Criminal Law Ame­ndment Ordinance, 2023, amended the Section 462 (O) of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860.

The electricity distribution companies were earlier facing difficulties in the registration of FIRs for power theft cases.

The ordinance is belie­ved to help curb power theft of around Rs590 billion in the energy sector.

After the promulgation of the ordinance, the theft of electricity will be a cognisable offence on the complaint of not only on officers of Grade 17 and above but also of nominees of CEOs of electricity distribution companies.

The president issued the ordinance under Article 89(1) of the Constitution.

In September this year, the caretaker government had announced plans of a massive crackdown on electricity theft as the annual losses due to electricity theft and failure to pay bills had gone up to around Rs590bn.

Power Minister Muhammad Ali had told a press conference in September that in every area, there were varying levels of power theft and there were also different percentages of recovery of power dues.

He had revealed that the annual loss due to electricity theft and failure to pay power dues had reached Rs589bn.

“The background is that in our country, some domestic consumers steal electricity and others don’t pay bills,” Mr Ali had said.

He had said that because of the electricity thieves and those who refuse to pay the bills, other consumers have to pay higher bills. “Until this is stopped, electricity prices will not come down,” the minister had said.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2023