Poor Parwan residents unable to pay power bills

CHARIKAR (Pajhwok): Some residents of central Parwan province ask the government to be patient with electricity bills defaulters as some consumers in the province are not able to pay their arrears due to their poor economic situation and unemployment.

Government officials insist electricity consumers should pay their bills and that they are trying to reduce the rate of electricity so that people face no problem in paying their bills.

Some residents of Parwan say that the government is pressuring electricity debtors to pay their bills and has warned them of disconnecting their power, something which has already been applied to a number of people.

MassoudKohzad, a student at Danesh Private University and a resident of the 11th police district of Charikar city, the capital of Parwan, said their house electricity had been cut off as they failed to pay 4,000 afghanis electricity bill.

“There are no jobs, all people are unemployed, the government should either exempt people’s electricity bills or create jobs for them, the government is yet to pay salaries of many people, it should pay their salaries so they would be able to pay their bills,” he said.

Meanwhile, the government has announced it will pay salaries of government officials for the months of September, October and November.

LinaMohammadi, a civil society activist in the province, has a similar complaint. “We will witness an economic and humanitarian crisis if people do not return to their previous jobs and economic problems not resolved, so the Islamic Emirate is responsible to first reduce joblessness and then deal strictly with those who have jobs but did not pay their power bills.”

Mohammad JavadParvani, who sells groceries in Charikar city, said, “If our electricity is cut off, the market will collapses, the economic situation is bad, shopkeepers are forced to close their shops and go somewhere else.” “The Islamic Emirate should help us and do not cut the electricity or damage our economy,” he said.

However, RuhollahSajed, head of Da Afghanistan BreshnaSherkat (DABS) or power utility in Parwan, said that the defaulters had to pay their electricity bills.

He added that during the previous government, a number of powerful people did not pay their electricity bills but now was the time they should clear their dues. He added that those not paying their bills would face serious action.

Sajed said that 67 people in Parwan defaulted on power bills amounting to more than 100,000 Afghanis each, while there is a total of 36 million Afghanis in unpaid power bills in the province.

Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman for the government, about people’s problems with power bills, said, “The officials of the Islamic Emirate will reduce power cost to its minimum so it would be a help to the people, we are also in contact with our neighboring country Uzbekistan and agreements are reached with them.”

He said that Uzbekistan will provide electricity at a very low cost or even free of charge to Afghanistan, he said.

DABS earlier announced that it has shared a plan to the government under which the assets of the company’s debtors who do not pay electricity bills will be sold to settle the unpaid bills of the mentioned figures.

According to officials, DABS owes $62 million in electricity imports to Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.

DABS has not released new figures, but said around five years ago power consumers owed more than three billion afghanis in unpaid electricity bills.

Mds/ma

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