Ijaz Kakakhel Islamabad
Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan on Wednesday claimed that energy crisis can not be resolved without reviewing the unholy agreements with the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and the recent times have proved that NEPRA has failed to provide affordable energy to the local consumers as per their mandate rather only served as a catalyst, protecting the interests of IPP’s.
The JI Senator expressed these views during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat, which was held today at Parliament House while Senator Saadia Abbasi was on chair. The committee members expressed serious concern over higher prices of electricity, which according to them broke the back of poor segment of the society. Several businesses were shut down and others were thinking about shifting their business to other countries where electricity and other facilities were provided at very cheaper rate as compared to Pakistan. The higher prices of power, petroleum etc badly affected the small and medium enterprises.
The Senate Committee was briefed on the hike in electricity prices and it’s impact on the general masses. Chairman NEPRA stated that NEPRA is mandated to provide safe and affordable electricity prices to the consumers and,as of now, consumers have been charged Rs. 45.06 per unit which includes the taxes mainly as capacity charges, energy charges, and DISCO’s margin. However, the recent macro economics indicators resulted in increase of Rs3.17 per unit. He further added that the total electricity capacity of the country is around 4400 MW, and currently an average of 2500 to 2600 MW electricity is being produced in the country out of which a total of 70 percent is being produced by IPP’s. Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan inquired as to whether or not the Power Generation license to IPP’s is being provided by NEPRA. In reply to that, Chairman NEPRA said that the license to IPP’s is provided by Government of Pakistan.
Senator Saadia Abbasi directed the NEPRA to provide details of Fuel Price adjustment charges and Capacity Payments being payed to the IPP’s in the year,2023.
Furthermore, the Senate body deliberated on the proposed increase of gas prices and its country wide utilisation.
