KARACHI: Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan and President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), Mian Zahid Hussain has said cheap electricity is very important to improve standard of living of masses.

Affordable electricity boosts industrial and agricultural production and make services cheap that help masses improve their lives, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that small power houses should be preferred over big ones, as practiced in the developed world, which can help resolve the power sector issues. He said that small power houses and focus on solar and wind power can help overcome losses worth trillions of rupees.

He said that according to a report of World Bank, twenty percent of electricity is wasted to theft and weak infrastructure while efficiency and transmission issues are resulting in losses worth $4.5 billion.

Fifty million people have no access to electricity while ninety million face load shedding resulting in monetary and social problems, he informed.

He said country imports fossil fuel worth billions squeezing resources and adding to the pollution. Pakistan is producing 64 percent of electricity through imported fuel and it will increase as economy takes off.

Efforts to improve transmission system and introduce renewable energy are half-hearted which should be given a boost while energy policy should be altered to make it according to the ground realities, he demanded.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that whole energy system should be revived and revisited so that masses could get affordable electricity which will also boost industrial and agricultural production and boost exports which are imperative for national development.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021