Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce Industry (ICCI) on Tuesday urged the government for unbundling the power sector by encouraging private sector participation that would address all the issues and promote a competitive power market in the country.
It said that power sector was marred with multiple issues including high electricity prices for industrial, commercial and domestic consumers, rising circular debt, and capacity payment issues.
Besides, the sector was also facing inefficient performance of GENCOs and DISCOS, high transmission and distribution losses and rising power theft losses, said a press release issued here.
While addressing a meeting of ICCI Executive Body Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan President ICCI said that the capacity payment obligation, which was Rs 488 billion in 2018 was projected to increase to over Rs1.4 trillion by 2023 as system utilisation would stand at 55 per cent, compared to 84 percent in 2018.
He said that these projections were not good for the economy as it would increase per unit cost of electricity and further enhance the cost of doing business in the country.
He said though the government has claimed that it has taken major initiatives for reducing the cost of power generation that would lead to Rs 300 billion impact over the next three years, however, he urged the government to prefer unbundling the power sector vertically and horizontally and bring private sector players in the power sector through good incentives in order to promote a highly competitive power market.