ISLAMABAD: The government on Monday deferred the collection of fuel adjustment charges on electricity bills for the time being and asked consumers not to pay power surcharge in the current month's bills with a view to appeasing a furious opposition in the joint sitting of the Parliament. Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar said.
"We will not collect fuel adjustment surcharge and people should pay the normal electricity bill till a mechanism for its collection is worked out by the treasury in consultation with the opposition." The Minister admitted that the bills being collected by the distribution companies were of hefty amounts. He, however, held National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) for its failure to determine fuel adjustment charges for each month. He said that Nepra has not determined fuel adjustment surcharge for the last five months and now the entire backlog was being passed on to consumers in the latest electricity bills.
The Minister suggested that a committee of the House should be constituted to work out a collection mechanism of fuel adjustment surcharge for the last five months. He agreed to the proposal of the opposition leader in the Senate to defer collection of additional power surcharge in the latest electricity bills.
The Minister said the government was not able to solve the problem of circular debt because of electricity theft and non-recovery of bills, which were continuing in connivance with the officials. Qamar also challenged the veracity of the statements of some opposition members about total installed capacity in the country. According to him, total dependable installed power capacity in the country is 15000 MW, not 19000 MW.
He asked the opposition members to sit with the government to work out a mechanism to overcome the problem. The Minister said the current generation was 9500 megawatt and hoped that the situation would improve gradually when power plants, which had been shut for annual maintenance purposes, would begin generating electricity in the next couple of days.
Pakistan Muslim League (N) members strongly criticised the federal government for its failure to address the problem during the last four years. They also criticized it for what they said an inequitable treatment to the Punjab government in relation to loadshedding. Ishaq Dar said that loadshedding in Punjab was relatively higher compared to other provinces. According to him, all the federating units are needed to be treated equally. The protest by opposition members during the statement of chief whip of the ruling party, Syed Khurshid Shah, raised House temperature.
Khurshid Shah said he had urged the Supreme Court to take a suo motu notice to identify people behind the power crisis. He criticised the PML-N government for "wasting" Rs 50 to Rs 60 billion on unviable projects. According to him, the Punjab government has not spent even a single penny towards power generation, although provinces had been allowed to generate power after the passage of 18th Amendment. He claimed that the Punjab government was running through a default of Rs 120 billion. Khursheed Shah said the government was taking steps to address power shortage and stated that the existing deficit of 40 to 45 percent would be brought down to 20 percent by 2013 by adding hydro and coal power generation.
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