Federal Minister for Water and Power Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao has said that electricity tariffs in the country had been inflated in the past due to higher cost of power purchased by Wapda from IPPs and the government would reduce the power tariff to provide relief to the common man.
The federal minister expressed these views while addressing a meeting of Task Force on Electric Tariff Reduction held here on Tuesday.
Task Force Chairman Mirza Hamid Hassan gave a detailed presentation about the findings and recommendations of the task force. He recommended certain technical, financial and commercial measures through which power tariff could be reduced.
This was the last of a series of presentations by the task force before sending of the final report to the cabinet for approval. The minister in his comments said that electricity is no more a luxury but has become a necessity for everyone.
He said that it is the duty of the government to reduce the electric tariffs as much as possible as it will positively affect almost everyone directly or indirectly.
The minister appreciated the detailed study carried by the task force on the factors causing high electric tariffs in the country and asked the concerned authorities to work on controlling them.
The minister specifically mentioned the system improvement and up-gradation of power utilities including controlling line losses, replacement of old and faulty meters and equipment, conversion of most of the Furnace Oil power plants to gas, improvement of Hydel/Oil ratio of the power projects, recovery of dues, reduction of furnace oil prices, promoting alternate or renewable energy resources and investment in research and development in the country, that could be helpful in bringing the power tariff down.
"Our aim is to provide relief in power tariff to all segments of the society including the common man, bulk consumers, industrial consumers and others" the minister said adding that proportionate tariff relief would be given to all the consumers.
The minister directed the Task Force chairman to complete and finalise the report soon so that it could be presented to the cabinet for approval.
The meeting was also attended by Secretary Water & Power, Saeedullah Shah, MD PPIB, Zafar Ali Khan, Vice Chairman NEPRA Abdul Karim Khan, and representatives of Wapda, KESC, PSO, Parco, Hubco apart from other members of the task force.
Comments
Comments are closed.