Power package to industries: DCCI president hails PM's announcement

MULTAN: President of Dera Ghazi Khan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) and ex-President of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) and former caretaker Punjab Minister for Industries Khawaja Jalaluddin Roomi has said the Prime Minister Imran Khan's announcement for the provision of affordable power to industries is another important step towards creating employment opportunities for the people and economic stability.

In his statement, he said the initiative to supply electricity to small and medium enterprises at subsidized rates would help run factories and also benefit poor workers. He said that reduction in the electric power tariff on incremental consumption of electricity by large scale manufacturing industry by 25 percent and 50 percent for medium enterprises (SMEs) is a landmark decision.

He said that Pakistan would be able to compete with neighbouring countries in World Market and our exports would increase considerably. "Govt has worked out some assumptions under which 500-700MWs more electricity will be utilized in the next eight months by the large industry and small-medium enterprises (SMEs) but it will provide to some extent solace to the government in terms of capacity payments." The official sources said that the government has decreased the power tariff on additional use of electricity for large scale industry by 25 percent to Rs12.9 per unit from Rs18 per unit for the next three years from November 1, 2020. And the tariff for small medium enterprises has been reduced from Rs16 to Rs8 per unit till June 2021 and after that, it will be reassessed if the package for SMEs will continue or not.

He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan wanted to address the issue of expensive electricity on an immediate basis due to which he renegotiated with the IPPs to revisit the old contracts. He said that the new agreement with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) would enable the government to purchase cheap electricity from IPPs and provide electricity to end consumers at lower rates. Also, the equity return would be made in rupees rather than US dollars, as was the past practice, he said. Successful negotiations with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) can be heralded as a victory for the economy at large. He suggested that Independent Power Producers (IPPs) should join hand with the Government in achieving the goal of economic stability, prosperity by increasing exports. He said that government alone cannot afford to bear the burden and it must be shared by IPPs.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020