Balochistan tubewells

The government's decision to charge agriculture tubewells in Balochistan on the basis of actual power consumption instead of a fixed rate of Rs 4,000 per month from the current month has prompted the Balochistan Chamber of Agriculture (BCA) to oppose the move.
According to a Recorder Report, quoting BCA chief Haji Aminuddin, this will only further add to the woes of small farmers who are already eking out a precarious living. The step may compel many of them to leave their profession, spawning a crisis situation.
As agriculture accounts for about 80 percent of Balochistan's economy, charging electricity bills computed on the basis of actual consumption is likely to create an across-the-board adverse impact on the conditions in Pakistan's most impoverished province. According to Haji Aminuddin, Balochistan farmers have enjoyed the subsidy for the last 10 years, and they will resolutely resist its rollback.
Although economists have lately come to view subsidising as a short-term prop to sustain a weak sector, its sudden withdrawal can have a highly destabilising effect. The farming community thinks a flat power tariff has many plus points, including higher pumpage rate without the tensions of billing, no power pilferage, water purchase from neighbouring farmers at lower rates as compared to that obtained through diesel tubewells etc.
The number of private tubewells in Balochistan is reported to be 22,277. Most of the electricity tubewells were installed in 1970s and 1980s, with WAPDA bearing the capital cost of installation. Until 1991, Pakistan had metered electricity tariff for irrigation.
However, with the steep rise in energy cost, the farmers started complaining, and the danger of low crop production increased as a result of non-availability of adequate water supply. This prompted the government to introduce a flat rate of Rs 4,000 per tubewell per month. However, a restraining factor in installation of electricity tubewells was the high cost of cable from the main supply line to the tubewell site, aside from the cost of transformer and other accessories. In those days a farmer had to pay Rs 25,000 for a 25kv transformer and Rs 10,000 per pole.
Clearly, the amount of initial investment was beyond the financial reach of many a small farmer. From 1991 onwards when the farmers were asked to pay these charges the trend towards installing electric tubewells further decreased. For instance, prior to 1991 the ratio of electric motors to diesel pumps was 1:3, which went up to 1:8 in 2000-01.
Secondly, the installation cost of a private tubewell varies according to the depth of water table. Therefore, the installation of cost of a tubewell in Balochistan is much higher than in the rest of the country. Installation cost in areas with a water table over 24 meters deep is seven time higher than the cost in an area where the water table is up to six meters deep.
Further, the average maintenance and repair cost of an electricity tubewell in Pakistan has been calculated at between Rs 3,000 and Rs 11,000. This further pushes up the total cost of using an electricity tubewell.
Agriculture in Pakistan has traditionally remained heavily dependent on groundwater, as canal irrigation systems do not provide the farmers with adequate water supply or enough control over irrigation. The farmers are therefore increasingly turning to tubewells as a supplementary source of irrigation water.
As many agriculturists in Balochistan are engaged only in subsistence farming, it would be unfair of the government to withdraw the flat power rate and start charging according to the actual power consumption.