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Zambia: State Owes Zesco K16bn
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The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
7 May 2008
Posted to the web 7 May 2008
Ndola
GOVERNMENT agiencies owe Zesco a staggering K54.6 in unsettled electricity bills, Energy Ministry Permanent Secretary, Peter Mumba has disclosed.
He told a paliamentary watchdog committe on Monday that the bills were as of December 2007 and had been outstanding since July 2003.
Mr Mumba said the Central Government's arrears amounting to K16.26 billion while councils owed K1.36 billion.
The water utility companies had not settled K28.07 billion with Parastatal firms were owing the power utility company K6.1 billion respectively.
Mr Mumba said this when he appeared before the committee on Government assurances chaired by Mwense Member of Parliament(MP) Jacob Chongo.
"We have also started disconnecting all those that are not settling the current bills. However, the disconnections are only being done on non-sensitive accounts," he said.
On assurances made over the commercialisation of Zesco, Mr Mumba told the committee that progress had been made as evidenced by a roadmap that was being prepared.
Mr Mumba said the main areas of the commercialisation as agreed with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) were based on improving technical performance, financial performance and to improve service provision.
He said Zesco was not currently making any profits because it was charging the lowest tariffs in the region.
The scenario would change once the company was commercialised.
On Tazama rehabilitation programme, Mr Mumba submitted that the crude tanks in Dar-es-Salaam had been rehabilitated at a cost of US$3 million while the one in Ndola had been converted into a diesel storage facility.
"The rehabilitation would be completed in 2009 and so far $600, 000 has been spent on the works," he said.
Under the strategic petroleum reserves programme, the Government had prioritised the storing of finished petroleum products and not crude oil.
Mr Mumba explained that the move was done so that in case of a breakdown of the refinery, the finished product petroleum strategic stocks could be readily used unlike crude oil, which needed to be processed.
The committee also heard that in order to address the current load-shedding problem, the Government through Zesco was implementing the power rehabilitation programme.
Rehabilitation works at Kariba North Bank power station would be completed in February 2009, while Kafue Gorge Power Station would be completed in December this year.
Other similar projects include Itezi-tezhi to be commissioned in 2012, Kariba North Bank extension to be commissioned in 2013.
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Kalungwishi Power Station would be commissioned in 2014, Kafue Gorge Lower Power Station in 2015 and Kabompo Gorge Power Station would be commissioned in 2013.
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| Copyright © 2008 The Times of Zambia. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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