Law abiding electricity and water customers are having to stump up over €80 million a year to pay for those who fiddle the system.
The theft of water, and something euphemistically called ’measurement errors’ account for losses of around €32 million a year. Add to this the cost of the one in five litres of water lost nationally from leaks* and the consumer is being grossly overcharged.
Electricity customers are covering a further €50 million a year for those that bypass meters or fix them to show low or zero readings.
The depressing figures are outlined today in Jornal de Notícias which shows fraud in electricity supply has been booming through the austerity years from 14,000 in 2012 to 40,000 in 2014 – but these are only the frauds that have been detected.
EDP Distribution loses out as does the state as the 23% VAT is never invoiced or collected.
EDP rather weakly says that it has ‘strengthened the teams on the ground and has started using remote control mechanisms to detect fraud.’
Much electricity theft is easy to spot as consumption suddenly goes down when a meter has been nobbled.
When this happens, the electricity company ‘sends someone along’ to fix illegal connections of meters that have been tampered with and presumably take customers to court for damage to equipment and theft.
The water supply sector is so fragmented that there is no figure for the number of m3 that are filched every year so the guesstimate of the loss in monetary terms is €32 million a year.
The Regulatory Body for Water and Waste (ERSAR) commented that these ‘apparent losses’ - made up from ‘measurement errors’ and straight theft - meant that in 2013 some 56.5 million m3 of water was lost.
The most popular way to steal water still is to tap into the supply beyond the water meter but other techniques include hampering the flow meter with pins.
Fines vary between €1,500 and €3,740 for individuals and between €7,500 and €44,890 for companies and seem to be having no deterrent effect at all on the wholesale theft from these service suppliers.
*See also: http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/5105-portugal-and-the-big-water-rip-off
