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ISLAMABAD: Confirming electricity outages of up to 12 hours a day, the ministry of water and power on Wednesday conceded before a parliamentary committee looking into the energy crisis that loadshedding could be done away with.
`We have the capacity. We can run our plants and end loadshedding. But for that we don`t have the money,` Water and Power Secretary Imtiaz Kazi testified at a meeting of the committee presided over by Usman Khan Taraki.
He said the federal cabinet had promised to provide Rs25 billion by Jan 4 sothat 9,500MW of electricity could be produced. `But so far only Rs6 billion has been released,` he said.
Currently, the power companies were generating 8,300MW and the average shortfall stood at 4000MW, Mr Kazi said.
`As we get more money, the generation will be increased to 8,900MW, reducing the duration of loadshedding to four hours in cities and six hours in villages.
He confirmed that cities across the country were going without electricity for up to 10 hours a day and the rural areas for up to 12 hours.
Mr Kazi said the government had com-mitted to increasing tariff by 2 per cent every month in order to pass on to consumers a cumulative increase of 12 per cent, but the process was stalled because of a stay order issued by the Lahore High Court.
The government had since then been able to get the order vacated, he said, leading to possible introduction of tariff increases in the bills for January.
Mr Kazi said the power companies were finding it difficult to recover their dues in full. The federal and provincial governments were not paying up to Rs90 billion, creating a shortfall of aboutRs125 billion and adding to the circular debt problem.
`If the circular debt problem is addressed and recoveries are made, then there will be no problem in meeting electricity demand,` he remarked.
The committee said that poor consumers who consumed less than 150 units per month should be charged Rs1.34 a unit, the price of electricity produced by dams. The rich and well-to-do consumers should be asked to bear the cost of electricity produced using costlier fuels.
Shahid Khagan Abbasi of PML-N proposed that the private sector be urged toplay role in the generation and sale of electricity and in recovery of bills to discourage yearly power theft of Rs90 billion.
`Those who can afford should be charged full prices,` he said and added that no business making losses could be allowed to continue.
When Mr Kazi said that implementation of such proposals would require political will, Mr Abbasi accused the government officials of misleading the authorities who in his opinion could be persuaded to make prudent decisions based on sound data.
http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/12/loadshedding-can-be-dealt-with-if-money-is-given.html
`We have the capacity. We can run our plants and end loadshedding. But for that we don`t have the money,` Water and Power Secretary Imtiaz Kazi testified at a meeting of the committee presided over by Usman Khan Taraki.
He said the federal cabinet had promised to provide Rs25 billion by Jan 4 sothat 9,500MW of electricity could be produced. `But so far only Rs6 billion has been released,` he said.
Currently, the power companies were generating 8,300MW and the average shortfall stood at 4000MW, Mr Kazi said.
`As we get more money, the generation will be increased to 8,900MW, reducing the duration of loadshedding to four hours in cities and six hours in villages.
He confirmed that cities across the country were going without electricity for up to 10 hours a day and the rural areas for up to 12 hours.
Mr Kazi said the government had com-mitted to increasing tariff by 2 per cent every month in order to pass on to consumers a cumulative increase of 12 per cent, but the process was stalled because of a stay order issued by the Lahore High Court.
The government had since then been able to get the order vacated, he said, leading to possible introduction of tariff increases in the bills for January.
Mr Kazi said the power companies were finding it difficult to recover their dues in full. The federal and provincial governments were not paying up to Rs90 billion, creating a shortfall of aboutRs125 billion and adding to the circular debt problem.
`If the circular debt problem is addressed and recoveries are made, then there will be no problem in meeting electricity demand,` he remarked.
The committee said that poor consumers who consumed less than 150 units per month should be charged Rs1.34 a unit, the price of electricity produced by dams. The rich and well-to-do consumers should be asked to bear the cost of electricity produced using costlier fuels.
Shahid Khagan Abbasi of PML-N proposed that the private sector be urged toplay role in the generation and sale of electricity and in recovery of bills to discourage yearly power theft of Rs90 billion.
`Those who can afford should be charged full prices,` he said and added that no business making losses could be allowed to continue.
When Mr Kazi said that implementation of such proposals would require political will, Mr Abbasi accused the government officials of misleading the authorities who in his opinion could be persuaded to make prudent decisions based on sound data.
http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/12/loadshedding-can-be-dealt-with-if-money-is-given.html
