Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said that a proper strategy was required to tackle the energy crisis and also to satisfy the World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) for securing release $900 million for energy sector.
Talking to media after inaugurating NUST Business School, the advisor said that there is a disparity in the international price of fuel and power generation cost, which has to be bridged by resorting to other means for not passing on the burden to the masses. Sheikh said that other means to bridge the disparity are alternate fuels; efficiency improvement of existing power plants and resource mobilisation. He avoided giving either negative or affirmative response when asked whether the IMF agreed to Islamabad request of waiver for 6 percent increase in power tariff which was due from April 1.
Sheikh will leave for Washington today (Tuesday) to attend the meeting of the IMF and World Bank and subsequently to discuss with the IMF its next tranche release to Pakistan under the stand-by-agreement.
The advisor said that prevailing energy crisis could be minimised by taking a number of measures which included immediate action to reduce massive transmission losses, conservation to save wastages, better management and timely release of payment to IPPs to ensure utilisation of full capacity. About Value Added Tax (VAT) he said that it would not have any impact on those who are already in the tax net, but would bring those into it who are not paying taxes.
Earlier, addressing the NUST gathering, he said that the people of this country were capable of doing wonders with true leadership, guidance and motivation. He said that Pakistan is trying very hard to achieve economic stability. The advisor said that historically, Pakistan has always had enjoyed growth rate of at least 5 percent and above but for the past couple of years, the growth had defied that trend. He also noted that Pakistan had not hitherto experienced the magnitude of inflation prevalent in recent times.
He said lot of factors are responsible for the current situation like unprecedented surge in oil and commodity prices and the global economic melt down, masses were suffering due to the combination of these factors.
Hafeez Sheikh said it as only four years ago that people all over the world were calling the then economic cycle the best run of economic growth and only after a span of 24 months things changed so rapidly that the world witnessed what it called the worst period since the great depression of 1930s. Sheikh said that Pakistan could very well come out of the current economic crisis but for this everyone has to make efforts.
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