Ijaz Kakakhel Islamabad
Federal Minister for Energy Muhammad Ali on Monday said the consumers are paying expensive bills due to inefficiencies on part of power distribution companies, fixing of power generation rate with US dollar and capacity charges.
The minister was speaking at a seminar on ‘Energy Conservation from Religious perspective’ which was organized by the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (NEECA). As a chief gust, the Caretaker Energy Minister Muhammad Ali said that the power distribution failed to deliver particularly in power theft and as a consequence the general power consumers have to pay more.
Narrating the agony of power sector, the minister claimed previous several democratic governments have made agreements with power generation companies with payment in US dollar’s. Another agreement of payment to power generation companies weather the government purchase the power or not but payment should be made as capacity payment also responsible for inflated power bills, the minister maintained. The energy minister claimed that the government was trying its level best to reduce the power rate from 14 cents to 9 cents per unit. However, it required several measures and financial resources and expressed the hope that the coming government would take appropriate measures. He also said that power pilferage was also a big problem in Pakistan and the distribution companies were totally failed to address this issue.
Despite of all challenges, the minister said whatever the energy resources available in the country need efficient use and conservation. He said that there were about 140 million electric fans were using during summer but all these were using the old technology.
He suggested that if modern efficient fans were replaced these old ones, the power consumption might be reduced to one third. Similarly, the transport sector may also need to replace with modern technology of electric vehicles which may help the government to save precious foreign exchange earning. The minister requested Ulemas to cooperate with government in its campaign on energy conversations.
Dr. SardarMohazzam, Managing Director, NEECA welcomed the Ulema for joining hands with NEECA for the national cause. He highlighted that behavior change at national level requires collective efforts and Ulema can create a massive impact through sermons by discouraging the wasteful use of energy.
NEECA developed a booklet with the support of Ulema about the energy conservation from religious perspective which was shared with all the participants present in the seminar.
