Renewable energy plants to be set up by public sector oil companies: ‘Concrete plan’ sought by PMO

ISLAMABAD: The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has given one month’s time to the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division and Power Division) to materialise a concrete plan to set up renewable energy plants by public sector oil companies.

This plan was part of maiden speech delivered by the Prime Minister- elect, Shehbaz Sharif (before he was sworn in as PM) in a rowdy session of the National Assembly.

On March 4, 2024, Syed Shakil Shah, additional secretary-II, PMO, in a communication, conveyed the points of action of PM Shehbaz Sharif’s speech as directives to the concerned ministries.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has been directed to clear all verified pending refund claims within 10 days. The FBR has already cleared a chunk of pending refund claims, soon after the speech of the new prime minister.

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The secretary Information Technology and Telecommunication has been given seven days for preparation of a plan for training of 0.5 million youth in Information Technology and increasing IT exports.

One of the directions of the prime minister, i.e., release of women and children convicted of crimes having punishment of not more than two years, and providing them technical education has already been implemented with the approval of the president.

The PMO has given 10 days, starting from March 4, 2024, to the Finance Ministry secretary and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor for preparation and presentation of a plan meant to increase SME lending by private/ commercial banks.

The Ministry of National Food Security and Research secretary and the provincial governments have been given one month’s time for provision of best high quality/ certified seeds to the farmers free of cost and provision of solar tube-wells to the farmers.

The Ministry of Industries and Production secretary and the provincial governments have been given 30 days to prepare a comprehensive mechanism for direct subsidy to the farmers on fertiliser.

The additional secretary PMO-II has also conveyed secretaries of all the concerned ministries that the prime minister shall review the implementation status of directives at a short notice.

Meanwhile, the PMO has directed all the secretaries to prepare a comprehensive briefing for the prime minister, on the important/ critical issue pertaining to their respective ministry/division.

The briefing may include an overview of major issues pertaining to the respective ministry/ division, and corresponding solution/way forward on deliverables. The briefing shall be a PowerPoint presentation with maximum five slides (excluding title slide, graphs, etc.) for each ministry/ division

According to the instructions, the exact time of briefing meeting to the prime minister shall be conveyed in due course.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024