The federal cabinet, which is scheduled to meet on Wednesday (today) with Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in the chair, will consider a four percent increase in power tariff which Ministry of Water and Power considers is essential to reduce the gap between the sale price and generation cost.
Well-informed official sources confided to Business Recorder on Tuesday that Water and Power Ministry has sent a summary to the prime minister for four percent increase in tariff before talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) scheduled for the second week of the current month. But the prime minister wants to place it before the cabinet and take political allies on board to forestall the possibility of controversy.
"Yes, Water and Power Ministry sent a summary to the PM and a decision is awaited," confirmed an official on condition of anonymity. According to the official the current tariff is about Rs 2.20 per unit less than the cost of generation.
Another key issue to be discussed by the federal cabinet will be induction of two more Rental Power Projects (RPPs) as this issue did not came under discussion because of paucity of time in the last cabinet meeting. Minister for Housing and Works Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat has also written a letter to the prime minister to block discussion on this crucial issue in his absence from the country.
Hayat is one of the petitioners in the Supreme Court against the RPPs project, arguing that there was mismanagement and corruption in the RPPs' contracts. Other issues which are expected to be discussed by the cabinet are as follows :( i) briefing on status of implementation on Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan; (ii) presentation on consumer price index in the country to oversee/discuss the trend of prices of essential commodities; (iii) amendments to the articles of agreement of the IMF;(iv) approval for signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by National Language Authority and Academy of the Persian Language & Literature (Farhangistan-i-Zuban-o-Adab Farsi), Islamic Republic of Iran;(v) Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between Pakistan and Indonesia;(vi) draft Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Implementation Bill; (vii) Pakistan's membership of the Forum of Federations;(viii) Members Election Commission (Oath of office, Term, Salary, Allowances, Perks and Privileges bill, 2011;(ix) The Constitution (Twentieth Amendment) Bill, 2011;(x) approval of addendum to lease contract agreement for extension in the lease period of Saindak Copper gold project;(xi) approval of Memorandum of Understanding for Import of Electricity from Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan: CASA-1000;(xii) initiation and signing of MoU between Board of Investment (BOI) Pakistan and the State Committee on Investments and the State Property Management of the Republic of Tajikistan;(xiii) renaming of Maritime Security Agency (MSA) as Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) and ;(xiv) signing of SAARC agreement on rapid response to natural resources.
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