Some 8,000 families of stranded Pakistanis in the city have not been paying their electricity bills to Power Development Board (PDB) for last two years.
As a result, their outstanding bills have stood at over Tk 300 million.
The family members of these stranded Pakistanis numbering around 40,000 have been consuming electricity in their seven camps since the independence of Bangladesh.
Despite huge outstanding bills, the PDB's distribution authority has yet to go for any harsh action like snapping of power lines, sources said, adding that these people would be brought under prepaid system in phases as a section of them have agreed to do so.
Sources in the PDB Chattogram region said the relief ministry had been paying the electricity bills for the stranded Pakistanis since 1972 through inter-ministry adjustment with the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources till 2016.
The relief ministry paid Tk 160 million to 200 million every year to Power Division on account of outstanding electricity bills for the Behari camps.
From January 2017, the ministry stopped paying electricity bills, leaving it with the PDB authority to collect bills from respective consumers.
But the consumers, who hold over 8,000 electricity meters in all seven camps, did not pay the bills for last two years.
Instead of disconnecting the electricity lines, the PDB authority started replacing analogue meters in the Behari camps with prepaid meters by the end of last year. But the residents protested the move.
Stranded Pakistanis said they would not pay the electricity bills. The government must pay their bills until they are fully rehabilitated, they added.
PDB sources said the authority had already installed 16 digital prepaid meters by replacing analogue ones for 610 families in Roufabad Colony on Monday (January 21). As the families didn't recharge the prepaid meters, they didn't get electricity.
When contacted, Chief Engineer (distribution), PDB Chattogram region Engineer Prabir Sen told the FE today that they have not snapped any PDB distribution line. The analogue meters only in the Roufabad Colony have been replaced by prepaid meters.
Through a High Court order, the stranded Pakistanis have become the citizens of Bangladesh as they sought it through a writ petition. Before that petition, they were not the citizens of the country, he added.
Mr Sen said they were getting free electricity in the past. The relief ministry paid their bills. But it has stopped paying the bills after 2016. Over last two years, they had outstanding bills amounting to over Tk 300 million while outstanding surcharge stood at over Tk 50 million.
He said camp residents have now been divided over the issue. A section of the consumers are ready to pay the bills while another section of consumers are against paying the bills.
The power distribution in the city has improved a lot over the last few years with generation of sufficient electricity, Mr Sen said.
The system loss in his zone has come down to 4-5 per cent in the city and 7.5 per cent outside the city. On an average, the system loss was 15-16 per cent in the zone before 2010. Revenue collection from domestic consumers also is highly satisfactory, he said.
General Secretary of the Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee (SPGRC) Chattogram Sohail Akhtar Khan said as many as 40,000 non-Bengalis have been living in seven camps in Chattogram since 1972. The government so far paid their electricity bills, but it now asked them to pay the bills.
"We have not yet been rehabilitated. How will we pay the bills? The PDB is installing prepaid meters in our houses. Unless we recharge the meters, we will have to live in darkness."
Earlier, they had used one single analogue meter for 100 families. But the PDB has installed 16 prepaid meters in Roufabad Colony. "As the night falls, 600 families live in darkness," he said.
They filed a writ petition with the High Court in 2008 and the court instructed the authorities to include them on the voters' list. Since then, they have become voters of Bangladesh, he said, adding that their demands still remain unfulfilled.
