Finance Minister Ishaq Dar Tuesday chaired a meeting of the committee constituted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on energy resource rationalisation for power sector here. Secretary Water & Power Nargis Sethi briefed the Finance Minister on the overall recovery position and collection of the amount due. She said circular debt has further been reduced to the level of Rs 238 billion which was stuck at Rs 295 billion a few weeks back.
She told the minister that she is planning to hold a meeting shortly with DISCOs to discuss improvements in the billing cycle. She assured the minister that all available resources will be utilised to make a comprehensive collection model. The finance minister directed the secretary water and power to take further steps to reduce the amount of circular debt of DISCOs and make people aware how they could reduce their bills substantially by conserving electricity during peak hours.
He further directed the secretary water & power to direct DISCOs to reduce their line losses from the figure approved by Nepra. Special Assistant to Prime Minister, Mussadiq Malik briefed the Finance Minister that he and his team have been working hard on their strategy to reduce line losses.
According to the model they have been following, Lesco will be able to reduce 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent losses for non-industrial connections and 1.5 percent for industrial connections by mid-October. This exercise is expected to save Rs 180 million monthly on sub division level. From January onwards when this plan will be implemented on feeder level, the monthly saving will reach to Rs 1 billion. The Finance Minister directed Mussadiq Malik to make more teams for the implementation of this plan and replicate this model in one of the DISCOs in Sindh.-PR