The government, instead of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), should be held responsible for increasing power tariff and it could have been avoided, some official sources privy to IMF claimed. The sources said that the heavy line losses were the major reason behind the power shortage and the government has been unable to reduce the losses due to its incompetent governance.
Only in the case of Hesco there were at least 35-40 per cent line losses, and this was making the electricity very precious for those who were not involved in electricity theft.
The sources said that the power thieves were so powerful and the administration was so weak to deal with them, as power theft, especially in Sindh, had become a fashion. The sources said that the widespread rumour that IMF had directed the government to increase the tariff for the electricity was totally baseless.
However, the IMF had suggested to the government to withdraw subsidies from the sector to decrease the budgetary deficit. When contacted, Paul S Ross, Resident Representative of IMF in Pakistan, said, "Donor agencies, whomsoever, even IMF, are generally interested in macro economic frameworks to be right tracked to reduce their risk level".
He further claimed, "We do not go into minor things and insist on macro economics development and also suggest "Yes, we do suggest to keep the budget on right track, continue to build reserves and we also expect the government to reduce inflation as it is helpful in attracting the donors and reducing their risks." But he said that the IMF did not direct the government in technical matters. Whereas an official of the Finance Ministry said that the donors of Pakistan whether IMF or any other, if they are not involved in most of the financial matters of the country, they certainly have a big say in a lot of these issues.
He said, "Yes, it can be agreed upon that IMF could not be directly involved behind the power tariff raise but suggesting to withdraw subsidies from power sector itself is a direction to increase the tariff because the line losses cannot be reduced in a short time."
But, he said, "I am convinced that by reducing the line losses the government could avoid burdening the poor people of Pakistan." However, the government of Pakistan was never witnessed to be in a position to control any type of corruption in the history, so no one can trust the government whether it would be able to control the said losses, the official said.