ISLAMABAD: Minister for Power Division Omar Ayub Khan on Monday said that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had been asked to investigate misappropriation of Rs80 billion in the Nandipur project. He was speaking to media along with Special Assistant on Petroleum Nadeem Babar after attending a consultative meeting on pricing mechanism of gas and LNG.

Omar Ayub said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was keen to resolve the issues pertaining to the energy sector and maintaining the supply chain of gas throughout the country.

He said the previous government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had signed expensive energy agreements to generate costly electricity for personal gain, and ignored refurbishing of the transmission lines.

He said a misappropriation of 80 billion rupees had been detected in Nandipur Power project, which had been referred to the FIA to be investigated, and those involved would be taken to task.

The amount which was to be given to the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) had been spent on other things resulting in a huge PSO debt, he added.

While talking about the current government's achievements, he said an additional 4,275 megawatt of electricity was transmitted in the last two years.

The minister said the government had spent around 47 billion rupees to revamp power transmission system, which was grossly ignored by the previous regimes.

He said the PML-N government shifted 70 percent of power generation to imported fuel, which enhanced cost of electricity in Pakistan.

He said now the PTI government was renegotiating expensive agreements with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to improve the power sector.

He said some of the PML-N leaders were misguiding people by presenting "false" statistics.

The PML-N government also discarded Renewable Energy (RE) projects of 4,000MW in order to pave way for setting up expensive power plants based on imported coal, he said.

He said solar energy agreements were signed at Rs24 per unit in the past, while the present government had not only revived all RE energy projects but also inked agreements for getting solar energy at the rate of Rs6 per unit.

The government has also decided to close state-owned in-efficient and old power plants, which would also help save billions of rupees, he added.

He said the past government also did not increase power tariff in the last two years of its tenure besides excessive power supply to the areas of power pilferage, with a view to winning general elections.

Similarly, the past government did not make any investment in power transmission system.

The present government had spent Rs47 billion on up-gradation of 220kV and 500kV transmission system of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) in the last two years, he said.

He said owing to a huge investment in the transmission system, an additional 4275MW electricity was transmitted during the last summer.

Moreover, the minister said the government had given a package for the industry besides addressing energy issues of southern Balochistan.

In the past, share of furnace power plants was 25 per cent in the total energy generation, which has been reduced to only four per cent, he claimed.

Nadeem Babar, on the occasion, said that the PML-N government established LNG terminals, but did not build storage facilities.

He said now the PTI government was working on construction of North South gas pipeline as well as storage facilities at LNG terminals.

He said the government had invited the private sector for setting up of LNG terminals in the country.

He said the rate of production of local gas had decreased over the years, which contributed to supply demand gap in the gas sector.

He also highlighted the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to resolve the issue within the premises of constitutional right of the provinces, which is acceptable to all the stakeholders.

He also apprised the forum about the cross-subsidy being provided by the government on energy sector.

Energy ministers of the Punjab, Sindh, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and the chief secretary Balochistan represented the respective provinces, which he appreciated.

The forum explored the issues, challenges and plausibility of implementing a country-wide sustainable and affordable gas pricing mechanism.

Replying to a question, the minister said all power plants had to be run in summer due to increase in demand of electricity.

He said almost Rs100 billion relief package was given to the power consumers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020