MULTAN: At least three major industrial units in the industrial estate here were fined Rs160 million during a raid by the Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) on Monday, a press release issued by the district government read.
Additional Deputy Collector General Ali Akbar Bhatti supervised the raid.
Bhatti told The Express Tribune that the raid had been conducted on the directions of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. The district administration was told to supervise the raid to avoid the possibility of some Mepco or SNGPL officials letting the violators slip, he said.
He said the district government had sent a report to the chief minister’s monitoring cell of all raids carried out over the past week.
Nafees Paper Mills did not have Mepco and SNGPL connections. The factory drew gas from a pipeline attached to the main SNGPL supply pipeline to the estate.
The factory was fined Rs120 million for stealing gas for seven years. It was also fined Rs15 million for electricity theft. An FIR has been registered against its owners.
A glass factory in the area was also fined Rs15 million for electricity and gas theft.
Mepco Operations General Manager Abdul Mateen Khan told The Express Tribune that 200 FIRs had been registered in several cases of electricity theft in the last 10 days.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 16th, 2013.