DarkStar
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2008
- Messages
- 116
- Reaction score
- 0
Has the govt learned from the disastrous experience of the KESC’s privatisation?
So decrepit and inefficient is the country’s power sector that fixing all that ails the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in Pakistan will take many years. But even if the problems are immense and long-term in nature, it does not mean the present federal government should be exonerated for its failures thus far.
Start with the power generation side of the problem. The peak difference between supply and demand is approximately 4,000 MW, a gap the governments hopes to close as quickly as possible by bringing new rental and privately owned power plants on line. Past promises of an ‘end’ to power cuts by December 2009 were always treated with scepticism, but even if it will take another few years to achieve that goal, there is a fundamental question that has not yet been answered: desirable as it is to end as quickly as possible the power cuts roiling the country, at what cost to the consumers is the government acting?
The numbers suggest that the price of electricity that is to be added to the national grid could be on the high, the very high, side, meaning that consumers could have to pay exorbitant rates for the privilege of using electricity in the future. For now the government has wrangled a concession from the IMF to postpone the elimination of the electricity subsidy until December 2009, but what will happen after that? Consumers may find that from a position of having too little electricity they will find themselves in a situation where electricity is available but too expensive to use.
At the distribution end, the government is planning on going down the KESC route once again: privatisation of the eight other distribution companies in Pakistan proper. The Faisalabad Electricity Supply Company is at the top of the privatisation list and could be sold off within the present financial year. But has the government learned from the disastrous experience of the KESC’s privatisation?
The government believes it has, arguing that the new process will be transparent, sensible and will ensure that the buyers have clear, enforceable responsibilities and investment strategies. But failing a public inquiry into the KESC fiasco and thorough public debate on the new privatisation policy, electricity consumers will not know, at least until it’s too late, if lessons have in fact been learned.
Good governance is about rolling one’s sleeves up and getting down to the nuts and bolts of policymaking and implementation. Unglamorous as it may be, success lies in the mastering of the details of problems. The government has yet to demonstrate it is up to the task.
So decrepit and inefficient is the country’s power sector that fixing all that ails the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in Pakistan will take many years. But even if the problems are immense and long-term in nature, it does not mean the present federal government should be exonerated for its failures thus far.
Start with the power generation side of the problem. The peak difference between supply and demand is approximately 4,000 MW, a gap the governments hopes to close as quickly as possible by bringing new rental and privately owned power plants on line. Past promises of an ‘end’ to power cuts by December 2009 were always treated with scepticism, but even if it will take another few years to achieve that goal, there is a fundamental question that has not yet been answered: desirable as it is to end as quickly as possible the power cuts roiling the country, at what cost to the consumers is the government acting?
The numbers suggest that the price of electricity that is to be added to the national grid could be on the high, the very high, side, meaning that consumers could have to pay exorbitant rates for the privilege of using electricity in the future. For now the government has wrangled a concession from the IMF to postpone the elimination of the electricity subsidy until December 2009, but what will happen after that? Consumers may find that from a position of having too little electricity they will find themselves in a situation where electricity is available but too expensive to use.
At the distribution end, the government is planning on going down the KESC route once again: privatisation of the eight other distribution companies in Pakistan proper. The Faisalabad Electricity Supply Company is at the top of the privatisation list and could be sold off within the present financial year. But has the government learned from the disastrous experience of the KESC’s privatisation?
The government believes it has, arguing that the new process will be transparent, sensible and will ensure that the buyers have clear, enforceable responsibilities and investment strategies. But failing a public inquiry into the KESC fiasco and thorough public debate on the new privatisation policy, electricity consumers will not know, at least until it’s too late, if lessons have in fact been learned.
Good governance is about rolling one’s sleeves up and getting down to the nuts and bolts of policymaking and implementation. Unglamorous as it may be, success lies in the mastering of the details of problems. The government has yet to demonstrate it is up to the task.
