Government asked to explain reasons behind energy crisis

The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Tuesday while expressing grave concern over non-provision of electricity to the industrial sector despite withdrawal of subsidy and making steep upward revision in its prices has asked the government to explain the reasons behind the energy crisis.
The ongoing energy crisis is deepening with every passing day and pushed the trade deficit to above $5 billion in first quarter mainly because the severe shortage of power is giving bad name to the government, said LCCI President Mohammad Ali Mian in a statement here on Tuesday.
The government has withdrawn the subsidy on electricity besides making an upward revision in its prices on the pretext of making payments to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) but despite making huge payments there is letup in power outages in sight.
"And above all nobody is ready to take the nation into confidence over the gravity of the situation," he added. Mian said that the crisis appears insurmountable in the near future, unless proper understanding and correct implementation is undertaken on priority basis.
At present total power production capacity in the country is about 17000 MW, while being produced only 10000 MW against the demand of 14000 MW thus creating a shortfall of about 4000 MW that calls for emergent measures on the part of government to explore all avenues of power generation.
He said that the whole industrial sector in general and the export-oriented industry in particular on the decline and had lost export orders of millions of dollars only because of shortage of energy.
He said on the one hand the country is losing much-needed foreign exchange while on the other the menace of unemployment is rearing its head and staring in the eyes of the government. The LCCI President while terming the recent agreement between Pakistan and Iran for provision of 1000 MW a step in right direction said that the country needs more such agreements because of fast increasing energy demand.
He said that the ongoing energy crisis is giving a very bad name to the government and is forcing the people belonging to all walks of life to take extreme steps. Since the shortage or high price of electricity has severe detrimental effect on all sectors of economy, the situation calls for concerted short-term, medium-term and long-term actions to overcome the problem of energy shortage.