In a very encouraging response to its Power Policy 2002, the government has received 33 Expressions of Interest (EoIs) envisaging investment of $ 5 billion by private sector.
These EoIs, for total 5,500 mega-watt power generation in private sector, have been received mainly from foreign companies from America, Germany and other European countries.
Besides, the government has also received an equal number of EoIs for two new cellular phone companies' licences.
This was stated by Chairman, Board of Investment (BoI), Waseem Haqqie, while talking to media men at a seminar on 'Investment Opportunities in Pakistan Power Sector', jointly organised by Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) and Board of Investment (BoI) on Saturday.
The BoI Chairman said that at present the country heavily depends on thermal power which constitutes 70 percent of total power generation, while the share of other renewable and indigenous energy sources, such as coal, gas, hydel etc, remained only 30 percent.
In this context, he stressed the need of reducing dependence on thermal power and said that the main objective of the government was to encourage exploitation of indigenous resources through active involvement of local engineering, design and manufacturing capabilities.
He hoped that with the start of Ghazi Brotha and Thar power generation plants the country's dependence solely on thermal power would reduce considerably.
He said that apart from power and telecommunication sectors the Board was also giving special emphasis on SME sector.
He observed that previously tough rules and regulations by the State Bank of Pakistan had been the major obstacle to investment in this sector and said that now this sector had been exempted from the mega-prudential requirements.
He also described oil and gas and agriculture sectors as prospective ones for investment.
Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) chief Zafar Ali Khan highlighted salient features the government's new power policy.
He said that in response to the new investor-friendly power policy, PPIB had received an overwhelming response for a cumulative capacity of about 6000 MW power generation and out of this capacity it has already issued Letters of Interest (LoIs) to six different companies for developing 1750 MW generation capacity.
About half of this 1750 MW would consist of hydel power, he added.
He said customs duty has been reduced to 5 percent on the import of plant and equipment not manufactured locally and will be no sales tax on such plants, machinery and equipment as incentive to investors in the new policy.
He said that the thrust of the policy 2002 was on developing indigenous fuel resources and for this purpose the government was soon going to start a series of feasibility studies and would invite the international competitive bidding (ICB) as till now all EoIs received are based on raw-site proposals which, however, are equally acceptable, besides ICB in the new policy.
He said that the government intended to ensure the required gas supply to the new power generation plants rather than to convert the old ones on gas, for technical reasons.
KESC MD Tariq Sadozai also gave a presentation on the working of the corporation and highlighted the improvements brought about in the corporation in the past few years.
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