Power outages cost industrial sector Rs 335.92 billion in three years: National Assembly told

Pakistan's industrial sector faced an estimated loss of Rs 335.92 billion during last three years due to power shortage. Minister for Industries and Production Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi on Monday told this to the National Assembly in written replies to the questions of the members. The minister told the lower house of the Parliament that the country's economy (Industrial Sector) faced a loss of Rs 162.15 billion in financial year 2014-15, Rs 114.38 billion in 2013-14 and Rs 59.387 billion in Rs 2013-14.
He said that as per National Electric Power Regulatory Authority's (Nepra) State of Industry Report 2013, Nepra estimated that the power sector was responsible for 2 percent to 3 percent reduction in the annual GDP growth. He said that reduction in GDP due to power shortage was 2 percent in financial year 2014-15, 2.3 percent in 2013-14 and 3 percent in 2012-13.
To another question, the Minister said that the surplus sugar in the current crushing season (2015-16) was likely to be around 0.612 million tons on the basis of sugarcane production forecast by Ministry of National Food Security and Research. He said that the surplus sugar was calculated at the end of crushing season of every year. He said that the surplus sugar for the season 2014-15 was estimated at 0.312 million tons in the meeting of Sugar Advisory Board (SAB) held on 04-11-2015. To supplementary questions of the members, the Minister said that women were being giving loans in all the four provinces under the Prime Minister Youth Business Loan Scheme. He said that training programmes had also been launched for capacity building and development of entrepreneurship amongst women.
Minister of State for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Pir Aminul Hasnat Shah informed the Lower House of the Parliament that the present government has reduced Hajj expenditures by 75,000 rupees to provide relief to the Hujjaj. During question hour of the National Assembly, the minister while replying to the supplementary questions of the members said that the Hajj facilities being offered to Pakistani Hujjaj were not only inexpensive but also better as compared to other Islamic countries including Iran, Turkey and Indonesia.
He said that under the National Action Plan (NAP) action has also been taken against those misusing the loudspeaker. Parliamentary Secretary for National Food Security Rajab Ali Baloch said that National Agricultural Research Centre would be kept intact for bringing further improvement in the agriculture field. Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch also told the House that approximately 18000 megawatt of electricity would be added to the national grid during the tenure of the present government.
He said the present government had launched several power projects based on various technologies and fuels. In private sector, Private Power and Infrastructure Board is processing projects based on hydro, coal and R-LNG with cumulative capacity of 7550 to 8050 megawatt to facilitate foreign investment to the tune of 11,028 million dollars.