'Power Division should restrict itself to policy implementation'

The ministry of power division should restrict itself to the policy implementation and empower the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) to solve the power sector issues, said the power sector experts. The government should also make permanent appointments in PEPCO, they added.

Talking to Business Recorder, Eng. Tahir Basharat Cheema said decentralization of the sector would bring positive change in the working of distribution companies (DISCOs).

He said a central control of the sector has resulted into a compromising situation so far as the performance of DISCOs is concerned. It is worth mentioning that the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has also asked the prime minister in early March to declare a national power emergency and take drastic steps for scaling down about Rs 1.93 trillion circular debt, which according to the regulator, is significantly higher than reported by the power division.

Former Member Power Syed Tanzeem Hussain Naqvi opined that only an empowered PEPCO would be able to evaluate the performance of DISCOs on the issues relating to revenue collection and line losses.

Eng. Muhammad Khalid, another power sector expert, said, there is also a need to revive composition of the Board of Directors at the level of 10 DISCOs, four GENCOs and NTDC and prefer those with professional backgrounds. He said it is generally understood that majority of the Board members are not from the relevant field and most of also do not attend board meetings regularly.

Meanwhile, some other experts are of the view that the power division is following the regressive step of former finance minister Ishaq Dar who had instructed to increase technical losses from 13.5 percent to 16.5 percent and reduce recovery target to 92 percent from 100 percent for DISCOs.

This single decision had led to increase in tariff on the one hand and a condonation of inefficiency of DISCOs on the other. It has resulted into an extra burden of Rs 150 billion on the consumers.

They said the present government is also following the revenue-based load shedding policy of the previous government and observing 3000 to 5000MW electricity load shedding in the areas not paying electricity bills. Also, it has reduced energy demand while leaving the power houses idle despite claiming capacity charges, which are again being paid by the compliant consumers besides an increase in tariff.

They said rudimentary efforts are being made to increase sales in Baluchistan, KPK and Sindh provinces, where huge swaths of areas are denied regular power supply. The utilization of LNG from Qatar by the power sector is also leading to increase in tariff, they added.

The industry, the export-oriented sector in particular, is hit hard and every now and then it is being threatened with the reversal of the special rate of 7.5 cent / unit. Similarly, this rate is being burdened with a host of charges although the facility of 7.5 cents/ unit was to be without any other charge. The consumer-end tariff has increased by 59% during the last 16 months, which is unbearable by the consumers at large.