Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif said on Wednesday that audit firms in their final report have given clean chit to the power Distribution Companies (Discos) with respect to over-billing, saying that no over-billing had taken place in case of consumers. However, audit firms have pointed out that consumers faced a 35 percent increase in power tariff due to slab erosion by the government.
Discos have already withdrawn relief provided to consumers based on an interim report of audit firms. The report is yet to be considered by the federal cabinet. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has already rejected the audit report. Talking to journalists after inaugurating Wapda Office Complex for mega hydel projects, he said that audit firms had submitted reports to the government which showed that a 35 percent increase in billing was due to change in slabs. He said that power consumers had received 14 percent more power in July compared to the same period of last year.
Insiders in the power sector also raised doubts on the independence of audit report due to an alleged Discos-auditors collusion. The minister that in order to utilise the identified hydropower potential of 40,000MW, the Ministry of Water and Power had chalked out a three-pronged least cost hydel generation and water storage development plan to cope with water and power requirements of the country.
He also said during the briefing that the present government had expedited construction work on 969-MW Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project and the first unit of the project would start power transmission in December 2015 in accordance with the directions of the Prime Minister.
Highlighting the efforts of present government towards construction of hydel power plants, the meeting was told that Rs 27 billion were released during FY-2013-14 for 4500-MW Diamer-Bhasha Dam. In this year's PSDP, the government has earmarked Rs 15 billion for completion of land acquisition on a fast-track basis. In this regard, the United Agency for International Development hosted an Investors' Conference in Washington in September to apprise the US businessmen, investors, and International Financial Institutions (IFIs), about lucrative investment opportunities in Diamer-Bhasha Dam project. The government plans to construct 4320-MW Dasu Hydropower Project together with Diamer Basha Dam project. Dasu Hydropower Project will be constructed in two stages of 2160 MW each and the World Bank has approved the funding for the Stage-I.
In August 2014, an agreement signing ceremony was held in Islamabad. The World Bank will provide $588 million for the construction of Stage-I of Dasu Hydropower Project. During briefing, it was stated that the construction work had also been started on 1410-Tarbela 4th Extension Project which is scheduled to be commissioned by mid-2016. Ministry of Water and Power also plans to launch construction of the 5th Extension of Tarbela HPP simultaneously with the 4th Extension. In addition to this the PC-1 of 7100-MW Bunji Hydropower Project has been submitted for approval. The process of land acquisition for the project would start soon.
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