The meeting of the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly was held under the chairmanship of Chairman Junaid Akbar, during which the Secretary Power Division gave a briefing.
The Secretary Power Division said that 58 percent of Pakistan s consumers are availing this ‘200 units’ subsidy, to whom the government subsidizes up to 60 percent of their electricity bills. The number of protected consumers has increased by 5 million in the last few years.
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He said that the government is working to abolish the category of protected consumers. In the future protected electricity consumers will be determined on the basis of BISP and from 2027, poor electricity consumers will receive cash.
The Secretary Power Division said that two proposals have been made to the IMF for the provision of additional cheap electricity. Under the first proposal, electricity can be provided to the existing industry for the second shift at the global rate. Under the second proposal, electricity can be provided to new industries, crypto and data mining at a lower rate.
The Secretary further said that negotiations with the IMF are ongoing, but they have not yet responded to the proposal. If the IMF approves, approval will be sought from the cabinet immediately.
On this, committee member Omar Ayub said that the PTI government has already provided this facility during COVID, the government should make its own decision instead of looking to the IMF.
In the meeting, committee member Shazia Atta Marri said that if there is surplus electricity available in the country, then why is load shedding happening everywhere? There is 14-hour power load shedding in Sanghar. The work of generating cheap electricity from Thar coal was stopped for many years due to pressure from the mafia. We protested against the Sahiwal coal plant, but today it is being admitted that this was foolishness.
On this, the Secretary Power said that the cheapest electricity is being obtained from Thar coal and work is being done to run more power plants from Thar coal. A railway track will be laid to bring Thar coal to other power plants, while the Jamshoro Power Plant will also be run on Thar coal.
The Secretary Power Division said that no new plant using imported fuel will be set up in the next 10 years. The government s priority is hydroelectric power plants and local coal plants. Alternative energy plants will also be promoted. Steps are being taken to reduce the burden of cross-subsidies on industrial and commercial consumers.
