The Ministry of Energy spent billions of rupees annually to provide free electricity to its government and corporate employees, according to the official documents presented in the National Assembly on Thursday.

The documents revealed that more than 200,000 current and former employees of the ministry were given 441.5 million units of electricity for free.

The documents showed that 308.2 million units were supplied to serving employees, while 133.2 million units were supplied to retired employees each year.

According to the documents, most of the recipients belonged to the distribution companies (discos). Its 149,000 employees – 78,000 serving and 71,800 retired – get free electricity, followed by 20,000 serving and 6,000 retired employees of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC).

Other beneficiaries include 7,315 serving and 5,381 retired employees of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and 159 employees of Power Information Technology Company (PITC), the documents show.