KARACHI: The Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, the President of the Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, the President of All Karachi Industrial Alliance, the Chairman of the FPCCI Advisory Board, Mian Zahid Hussain, said that the power bureaucracy is systematically discouraging domestic, commercial and industrial consumers of solar energy, which is regrettable.
He said that due to the unaffordable electricity prices, the public and business community are increasingly inclined to use solar energy. Still, instead of cooperating in this regard, power distribution companies are putting up obstacles.
He said that a domestic consumer has to pay an additional cost of forty to sixty thousand to install a green meter. Some reports suggest that the reading of a single-phase meter is taken from the front, where the consumed units are visible. At the same time, the camera is tilted while reading a green meter so that the reading is not visible, and the consumer can be easily deceived.
He said that there is a huge difference between the electricity production of the inverter of solar consumers and the production reported by the power company, and the user always loses.
The business leader said that the billing system for green meters has been kept so complicated that 99% of the users don’t understand it.
He said that officers of various power distribution companies take six to eight months to grant industrial users permission for solar energy, and many cases have been pending for years.
Similarly, industrial users using solar energy are not even allowed to expand power generation. They are forced to increase the number of solar panels independently; they have to face raids and power disconnections, which destroy their businesses.
He said that the laws made in this regard are one-sided, and consumers are not heard. The power sector bureaucracy is forcing them to use expensive and irregular grid electricity.
He noted that by closing industries, industrialists have to bear the loss of production and reputation, the government suffers a huge revenue loss, and people working in these industries become unemployed.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the government should review these issues and balance them by amending the laws so that violations of the rights of domestic, commercial, and industrial consumers are stopped.
Renewable energy sources are being encouraged all over the world. Governments support and encourage those who use solar power. Until some time ago, the same was happening in Pakistan, too, but now it is being reversed, which is condemnable.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024