KARACHI: The Public Accounts Committee of the Sindh Assembly has directed the provincial government and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) to approach federal government departments and entities for the recovery of outstanding water bills of over Rs20 billion.

The matter of outstanding dues against several federal government institutions, including armed forces, was taken up by the PAC on Nov 27, last year and during the examination of audit paragraphs of the water utility from 2019 to 2021 it was revealed that they owed Rs20.691bn water dues.

Sources in the water utility, however, said that the total outstanding water dues against the federal entities had now swelled to over Rs25.803bn.

They said that the Pakistan Steel Mills alone owed over Rs12.354bn to the water utility.

PAC chairman Khuhro laments Centre has put province’s fiscal issues on the back burner

The sources said that the outstanding water dues against army and navy were Rs2.1bn and Rs1.4bn, respectively. The Clifton Cantonment Board owed over Rs1.9bn to the water utility.

The dues are outstanding against several federal government institutions, including Air Force, Port Qasim Authority, Pakistan Railways, Pakistan State Oil, Sui Southern Gas Company, Printing Corporation, Marine Fisheries, Cotton Export Corporation, Karachi Shipyard, Pakistan International Airlines, Pakistan Machinery Tool Factory, Cotton Export Corporation, Coast Guards, and cantonment boards, and Quaid-i-Azam Mazar.

On Dec 30, last year the secretary (committees) of the provincial assembly wrote a letter to the additional chief secretary of Local Government Housing and Town Planning and CEO of Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation and asked them to make serious efforts for the recovery of the outstanding dues against the federal government departments.

Meanwhile, PAC Chairman Nisar Ahmed Khuhro in a statement on Wednesday urged the federal departments to clear longstanding dues of water charges amounting to Rs20,691.321 million unpaid since 2016 and said the provincial government was writing to the Centre demanding early clearance of the dues.

He said that the additional chief secretary of local government department and the water utility chief had been directed to write to the federal government in this connection.

The PAC had summoned the departments concerned to its meeting scheduled for Jan 21, he added.

Mr Khuhro said that the federal departments had been reluctant to pay the dues to provincial government since 2016 and the bills kept piling up.

He said that the Centre had put the province’s financial issues on the back burner. “It is a great excess being done to the province which is already seeking its due share in the National Finance Commission Award,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2025