ISLAMABAD: The primary energy supply in the country has witnessed 2.3 per cent increase during current fiscal year as compared to last year.
The availability of energy per capita remained 0.372 TOE during the year as compared to 0.371 TOE in 2010, posting a positive growth rate of 0.16 percent.
An official source on Tuesday said due to population growth rate of almost two per cent, the balance between energy supply and emerging needs was outset.
He said analysis of composition of final energy supplies in the country suggests that the supply of coal during last ten years grew at an average rate of 7.5 per cent per annum followed by gas, electricity, petroleum products and crude oil with average growth rates of 5.7 per cent, 3.4 per cent, 2.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively.
The official said main hurdle in supply of energy was accumulation of massive circular debt and added the major problems which cause accumulation of circular debt were the partial transfer of tariff as determined by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), heavy line losses (present level of line losses are almost 20 percent), incomplete corporatization, weak governance and costly fuel mix putting an extra financial burden on meeting the cost of fuel oil due to constant increase in oil prices etc.
He said the government made all possible attempts to address this issue during last year, Finance Division released Rs. 65 billion as well as Rs. 120 billion as tariff subsidy to Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pvt) Ltd (PEPCO) over and above the budgetary allocation to overcome its operational shortfall and relax the Circular Debt.
The official said with approval of the Cabinet, funds amounting to Rs. 142 billion have also been raised from the banks in March 2012 and paid to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) by PEPCO.
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