Islamabad; Minister for Power Omar Ayub Khan said that government had set the target to get rid of the power circular debt by December 2020. He was sharing the details in Federal Cabinet that met on 07 May 2019 with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair.
He said during 2017-18, the circular debt had increased by Rs 450 billion which would be brought down to Rs 293 billion during the current year and Rs 96 billion by 2019-20. However, the circular debt would be completely overcome by end of next year.
He said that a 25-year plan had been finalized to bridge the ever increasing gap between demand and supply of electricity. Moreover, a fresh policy for power production through alternate energy resources had been formulated, he added.
Under the policy, the minister said 20 percent of total electricity would be produced from alternative resources by 2025 which would be enhanced to 30 percent by 2030. The minister said that the ministry’s drive to curb power theft and recovery of dues had brought in positive outcomes. Within four months, the additional power dues worth Rs 48 billion had been recovered that would touch Rs 80 billion mark by year end and Rs 190 billion till June 2020.
He said that a special focus was being given to handle the losses caused by theft, technical and transmission issues that were coming to fruition.
As a step to curb power theft, 27,000 First Information Reports (FIR) had been registered against those involved while 4,225 people had been arrested including 433 officials of the power sector. Moreover, another 1,467 officials had been charge-sheeted. The Minister said that no power load shedding would be done on 80 percent feeders across the country during the holy month of Ramadan due to improved distribution and transmission system. For rest 20 percent feeders, a load management plan had been formulated in accordance with the losses and where the ratio of power theft was above 80 percent. However, it has been ensured to provide uninterrupted power supply during Sehr and Iftar.
He said the previous governments had failed to incorporate the expenses incurred on net hydel profits and different power projects in power tariff that was why the consumers were bearing an additional burden now.
The installed capacity of the country was 30,000 megawatt while 24,000 megawatt could be generated.
The minister assured that Tribal Electric Supply Company would provide electricity for 10 hours each day instead of four hours in the tribal areas and there would be no load shedding during Sehri and Iftar during Ramazan.
Omar said electricity more than that could not be supplied because of lack of infrastructure. “We will build the infrastructure and install feeders, conductors and polls to improve the system and provide the same kind of facilities as available in other areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.” About the prices of petroleum products, he said that the PTI government had decreased the GST and Petroleum Levy on the products as compared to previous governments.
