PM Shehbaz waves off electricity bills of THESE consumers

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday declared the waiver of domestic consumers’ electricity bills in flood-hit areas of Pakistan as the nation faces the challenge of rescue and relief work with a view to long-term rehabilitation.

In a televised address, the prime minister announced that the government had instructed the power distribution companies to refund the amount next month to those who had already deposited their bills for the current month.

As regards the agricultural, commercial, and industrial consumers, Shehbaz stated that the collection of their bills for August had been delayed.

But the prime minister explained that the government was estimating the losses incurred by the industrial, commercial, and agricultural consumers. The government would extend more relief if its loss estimation was higher than the bills, he said.

Regarding the destruction caused by the record floods, Shehbaz explained that the government departments were making a serious effort to manage the calamity.

However, things have begun to improve somewhat in Punjab, where water flow on Sunday at Panjnad — the confluence of Chenab and Sutlej — was 395,761 cusecs at 8 pm.

It was a notable decline compared to the unusually high flood of 703,698 cusecs on September 11.