Water and Power Ministry - approves two demands for grants of Rs 42.96 billion

The National Assembly on Thursday approved two demands for grants of Ministry of Water and Power amounting to Rs 42.96 billion for the next fiscal year and rejected 75 cut motions moved by the opposition parties against the demands. Winding up the debate in Lower House of the Parliament, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif said that load-shedding was a chronic issue and could not be resolved in a couple of days.
"We are working on numerous energy projects and hope the crisis would be resolved in the next four to five years," he said. Informing the House about the receivables of power sector, he said that Sindh owes Rs 54.55 billion, Balochistan Rs 5.55 billion and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa around Rs 2 billion. "If the federal government receives its entire amount from the provinces that stands around Rs 75.9 billion, the issue of circular debt could be resolved easily," he said.
The circular debt is a serious issue and it stands at Rs 265 billion, he said, adding the government is also struggling to overcome the line losses by gradually replacing the old transmission lines. About K-Electric, he said that the government had 25 percent shares in the company and would force it to improve provision of electricity to Karachi. "We are planning to get benefit from the Thar Coal project in the next three to four years," he said, adding the government is also working on solar and wind energy projects to overcome the energy crisis.
The minister said that national grid would get 2,800 megawatts electricity in 2018 from Tarbela 4 and 5. "We need around 19,000 megawatts of electricity to fulfil the requirement of all nine distribution companies but the install distribution and transmission system can't bear it," he said.
"State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali or I never gave any deadline regarding ending the loadshedding but we are doing our best to overcome the crisis as soon as possible," he said. The minister also informed the House that this government had been supplying uninterrupted power to the industry across the country from last October that has resulted in more job creations.
The National Assembly also approved five demands for grants for Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources amounting to Rs 900 million for the next fiscal year. Winding up the debate on the cut motions, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that his ministry was earning billions of rupees while spending negligible resources from the national exchequer.
The minister said that honest and capable people had been appointed in different departments of the ministry to get the maximum output. "We believe in complete transparency and there is no allegation of corruption in any department of the ministry unlike the past government," he said.
The Thar Coal project is a provincial subject but the federal government is planning to get a block and develop it, he said, adding the federal government is willing to support the Sindh government to exploit the project to its fullest. He said that Pak-Iran gas pipeline project would be completed and questioned the previous PPP-led coalition government for its failure to work on the project, besides signing it in 2009.
For LNG procurement, the government has issued open tenders, he said, adding that negotiations with Qatar for the gas are also underway. "The price for the gas has not yet been negotiated but we are hopeful to bring the gas in Pakistan by the end of this year," he added. Abbasi said that unaccounted for gas (UFG) losses had been increased to 10 percent. "The government is trying to bring down the UFG and is negotiating the same with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government," he said.
Informing the House about the Shale gas, he said that the discovery of the gas was not an easy task as it requires decades to drill a single well. "America is the only country so far that has been successful in discovering reserves of the Shale gas," he said. The minister further said that the government was planning to explore the gas and oil reserves across the country to increase the production of these energy resources. "We have increased our oil production up to one hundred thousand barrel in a short span of time and it is a great success of the present government," he added.