DABS identifies 329 defaulters, recovers 681m afs arrears

KABUL (Pajhwok): Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) has identified 329 persons defaulting on electricity bills and has so far recovered 681 million afghanis arrears through its special mechanism.

DABS said the defaulters were either politicians of the former regime or powerful individuals who refused to pay their electricity bills for years.

DABS spokesperson Hikmatullah Maiwandi told a press conference here on Monday that the “mechanism” for the recovery of DABS debts had been shared with representatives of the economic commission, ministries of defense, interior and the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI).

The representatives then established a joint commission to collect information about defaulters and issue notices to owners of properties and the income obtained from these properties will be transferred to DABS account, Maiwandi said.

The commission also collected information about the properties where officials of the current government reside.

He said that the representatives of the commission and DABS then asked the MoI and DGI to provide them with a team of personnel to successfully implement the debt recovery mechanism.

Maiwandi added the team succeeded to identify 329 defaulters and give them warnings to pay their arrears during two weeks while 33 of them paid their arrears immediately. The commission has so far collected over 6.2 million afs.

He said owners of industrial companies and other business centers received DABS warnings to pay their arrears while they paid over 6.7 million afs of their debts.

aw/ma