The prime minister was given a briefing on the steps taken for the facilitation of public and easing different phases for doing business in this sector.

Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan, Special Assistant Nadeem Babar, Special Assistant on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Chairman Investment Board Zubair Gilani, Secretary Power Division Irfan Ali and other senior officials attended the briefing, PM office media wing in a press release said.

The secretary power division apprised that special attention was paid to issues including public complaints regarding inflated bills, loadshedding, sudden increase in tariff, prices of power, corruption and policies safeguarding interests of self centered elements.

The prime minister was apprised that under these efforts within one year, about eighty per cent feeders throughout the country were made free from power theft and losses which helped improved and uninterrupted power supply to various sectors.

The prime minister stressed upon making the processes further easier for investment and business, and directed for presenting a time line mechanism in this regard.

It was further added that with improvement in the supply system, attention was being paid to improving the power distribution system in the current year. Further decrease in the load shedding would be observed in the next year, improving the financial matters of power distribution companies (Discos).

The public complaints were reduced after their issues were addressed with special focus, the secretary added.

The prime minister was apprised that completion work on renewable projects which had been facing delay since December 2017 was being expedited.

The work on the installation of AMI meters and ABC cables was in the progress.

To address public complaints on transformers, they were being provided with the facility to purchase them from the approved companies for which there would be no need to obtain ‘no objection certificate’ (NOC).

The prime minister was further apprised that a pilot project under LESCO had been started making the process for new connection easier, enabling the consumers to calculate the used power price, apprising the consumers about the power price, timely information about the load shedding, and online bill payment facilities.

After its implementation, the system would be spread to other parts of the country.

Briefing the prime minister about System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) and System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), it was told that last year, 1,379 power interruption cases were reported which had been reduced to only 108 in this year.

The interruption duration had been reduced to 432 hours from 3474.3 hours which was a clear success.

The prime minister appreciated the efforts of power ministry for its efforts in bringing improvement in the power sector.