Power consumers to reap relief of Rs 300bn owing to govt reforms: Umar

Federal Minister for Planning and Coordination Asad Umar that power consumers would be provided relief of Rs 300 billion in three years owing to the government’s reforms in the power sector and revision of agreement with the Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

Talking to reporters, Asad Umar, who also serves as the head of the Cabinet Energy Committee, said that there was a severe shortage of technical experts in the power sector. The federal minister stated that he never said that the issue of circular debt would be taken care of by December 2020.

Asad Umar further said that revision of agreements with IPPs would provide relief of Rs 300 billion to power consumers in three years and final progress on agreements with IPPs would be made soon.

The Federal Minister said that if the electricity rate was raised by Rs 12 per unit as soon as the present government came into power, the circular debt would have ended. He informed that Rs 1000 billion is being spent annually on capacity charges.

In the past, power projects were implemented using imported coal, he said. He further said that the previous government did not pay attention to the power transmission system. However due to present government measures electricity will be cheaper by 74 paise per unit in 2022, and 66 paise per unit in 2023.