While addressing the Pakistan Energy Symposium in Islamabad, the federal minister said supplying local gas to efficient power plants will bring down the electricity price to Rs12 per unit.

He remarked the government is trying to increase the power supply to meet the demands of increasing population in the country.

He added for every one percent increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the demand for electricity supply will increase by 4 to 5 percent.

He further said lately travelling cost has increased a lot for the citizens of Pakistan.

“The country is facing a lot of problems due to climate change. We have to work to eradicate these issues,” the minister said added Pakistan spends $18 billion annually on energy imports.

At the symposium, he also told the media that “we are speeding up oil and gas exploration work in the country. We also welcome foreign companies to invest in the gas exploring projects. The investment process has been made very easy as the permits and information on oil and gas exploration has now been digitised.”

He also said work on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project, which was earlier stopped due to the situation in Afghanistan, has been resumed.