Federal Minister for Water and Power, Raja Pervez Ashraf informed the National Assembly on Wednesday that 1,800 megawatt electricity was included in the country's power transmission system during the last two years. Replying to supplementary questions raised by parliamentarians, he said that there was shortfall of 5,000 megawatt and with the inclusion of 1,800 megawatt there has been improvement in power supply system.
The minister said that the government has taken several measures to overcome the loadshedding adding that as compared to the months of October and November, last year, there was no loadshedding during the same months of this year. He said that loadshedding was not any new phenomenon; it has surfaced during 1973 and then in 1985, however, added that it has become regular feature since 2005.
To another supplementary question, Pervez Ashraf said that keeping in view the shortage of gas in the country, the government has switched most the power generation units from gas to furnace oil. He said that the government had decided to exempt those areas, to pay electricity bill for a period, when these remained under flood and power was not restored. The delay charges for payment of the bill were also waived off, he added.
He said that flood affected where power supply has been restored are regularly being billed and are not exempted. To another question, the minister said that the cost of service connection is recovered from the applicant for the connection. Under the criteria Rs 4,000 and Rs 15,000 was being charged from the applicant for domestic and commercial connection falling in the radius of 40 to 80 meter of electric pole, he added.
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