Federal Cabinet had directed the Ministry of Finance to solve financial problems of power sector and reconstituted the Energy Committee by inducting, among others the Interior Ministry to launch a crackdown against all those involved in power theft. This was stated by Minister for Information Qamar Zaman Kaira at a news conference after a Cabinet meeting here on Wednesday.
The Minister said that Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani was converted into a special meeting to take up the issue of loadshedding. Kaira said that a detailed discussion was held about the public outcry against loadshedding. The meeting also discussed how loadshedding problem was being exploited by some forces for political mileage. Th minister for Water and Power, Petroleum and Finance briefed the meeting about various aspects of power outages and the meeting directed the Minister for Finance, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, to make all the required funds available to the power sector till budget 2012-13.
He said that more members had been added in the existing strength of Cabinet committee on energy. They included the Minister for Interior. He has been asked to take action against the people involved in power theft. The Minister of Information has also been included to inform people about exact schedule of load management. Energy Conservation Plan will be fully implemented. The Governor State Bank of Pakistan and Minister for Kashmir Affairs would also be the members of the committee that would ensure speedy implementation of Energy Conference's decisions.
Kaira said that the Finance Minister had been empowered to take decisions about issuance of Rs 82 billion term finance certificates. According to Kaira, Hafeez has also been asked to make Rs 50 billion available for the import of furnace oil. Kaira said the government was also making efforts for magnetisation of 1500 MW electricity being used by the employees of Wapda and negotiations in this regard were being held with their representative body. The Minister for Information said that the Finance Minister had said that Rs 50 billion required for the import of furnace oil would be made available.
The Cabinet decided that Energy Committee comprising Ministers for Finance, Petroleum, Water and Power, Information and Broadcasting, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission and Governor State Bank of Pakistan would meet frequently to resolve the energy crisis. The Finance Minister assured the meeting that all financial resources would be utilised, till the next budget, to meet energy requirements.
The meeting also decided that an Energy Monitoring Control Room would be set up in the Ministry of Water and Power. It will ensure a round-the-clock surveillance of energy situation and one member of the Cabinet Energy Committee will be present there to monitor the evolving situation, according to Kaira. The Cabinet meeting also decided that theft and recovery issues in the Wapda would be strictly dealt with and no pressure would be accepted. He said there would be a zero tolerance towards power theft and all necessary steps, including enactment of a legislation would be taken to fight against power theft.
Kaira said the Prime Minister said that his government would present a pro-people budget. Job creation through the next budget should be the top priority. As many as 100,000 new job opportunities for young men and women would be created.
In order to ensure cost-effective service delivery to people, expansion and strengthening of infrastructure and improvement of governance were government's priorities. The meeting decided that to address energy crises, recommendations of the Energy Conference held in Lahore, in April 2012 should be the guidelines for resource allocation for power sector. The recommendations of the Energy Conference have been prepared with consensus of the provinces, according to him. Tax policy and tariff rationalisation may be done thoughtfully. The tariff rationalisation may be done methodically after analysis of all products on their own merit without discouraging the local and foreign investment, he added.
Monitoring and evaluation capacity of Planning Commission would be strengthened. The evaluation should be result-based with emphasis upon outcomes. The cost of project management in public sector development is too high which needs to be further rationalised, according him. Expeditious and full disbursement of PSDP budgets should be ensured during the current financial year, he added.
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