Sanctions on IP gas line: Govt in talks with US Admin to secure waiver: Musadik

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been engaged with the US administration to secure a waiver from US sanctions on the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline in order to meet its energy needs, while simultaneously fulfilling contractual obligations with Iran.

Federal Minister for Energy Dr Musadik Masood Malik said during a press conference on Thursday.

He said the government is working on two fronts simultaneously: one to secure a waiver from US sanctions and the other to build gas pipeline infrastructure in accordance with the contractual obligations of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline.

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Responding to a question regarding his meeting with the IMF visiting team, he said he held only an introductory meeting with them but the government had met all the conditions of the IMF related to the power sector.

He maintained that the IMF team was also apprised that the government had intent to bring reform in the energy sector not a condition of the IMF for future generation of the country.

The minister said that reforms in the energy sector would be introduced to end the differential price between the cost and sale of electricity to bring down Rs1,000 billion annual losses.

He further said that most of the work on WACOG (weighted average on cost of indigenous gas and imported RLNG) had been done which would help to reduce the cost of power generation.

Citing example, he said Bhikki and Haveli Bahadur Shah had been more efficient power plants, however, per unit cost of electricity reached to Rs22-24 due to expensive RLNG. While, cost of electricity on local gas was Rs12 and some private companies were generating electricity on Rs6 per unit.

Responding to a question regarding DISCOs, he said the performance and efficiency of the DISCOs would be improved by reducing electricity theft and line losses.

The government would devise a strategy for DISCOs either they would be run under private-public partnership or public sector, until then the efficiencies of DISCOs would be improved.

Musadik Malik said each public sector oil company had been directed to establish a separate company for renewable energy. This, he said would help generate cheap electricity and protect the environment.

The minister said that the prime minister envisaged the uplift of rural and urban areas, and added that it had been decided to provide direct subsidy to the farmers on fertilisers. He maintained provision of high-yielding seeds and solar tubewells to the farmers would be ensured in order to enhance the productivity of the agriculture sector.

He said loans will also be provided for the establishment of farm industries in order to ensure maximum utilisation of fruits and vegetables.

For the urban areas, he said that a plan had been developed to provide IT-related training to 500,000 and commercial banks would be directed to provide soft loans to the small and medium sector.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024