Power generation to fall by 800 megawatts if RPPs pacts lapsed on June 30

Ministry of Water and Power on Monday told National Assembly Standing Committee on Textile Industry that the generation of electricity would be reduced 800 MW if the agreements of Rental Power Projects (RPPs) lapsed on June 30, 2011. "Circular debt pertaining to Furnace oil, Rs 140 billion payable amount against the provinces, theft and line losses are main reasons of load shedding in the country," Additional Secretary Ministry of Water and Power M Ahsan Akhtar Malik told the Committee.
The Committee met with Haji Muhammad Akram Ansari in the Chair at the Parliament House. The Committee discussed the issues of load shedding, policy for textile, B.T Cotton and others. The Committee expressed serious concern over the performance of Textile Ministry and said that it could not introduce new seed of cotton for many years. The M D Pakistan Electric and Power Company (Pepco) briefed the Committee on load shedding. During the briefing, he said that agreements of Rental Power Projects would lapse on June 30, 2011. Negotiations are underway with concerned authorities to continue them, he added.
He said that the government collected an average of Rs 9 billion taxes per month from consumers through electricity bills. He said that Ministry of Water and Power transfers this amount to government treasury.
He said that independent feeders are being installed to eliminate load shedding for industrial sector. He said that today total generation capacity is 16,400MW and it will touch 18,000MW in July/August. Answering to question, he said that as many as 700 cases have been registered against the employees of Wapda during the last five years who are involved in theft of electricity.
He said that Pepco has been facing power shortage during the last many years due to GAP between demand and supply. He said that though about 3,000MW has been added to the system still a deficit exists in demand and supply. However, he said that textile units with dedicated 11-kv feeders utilising Pepco power supply around the year and having no self-generation are exempted from load shedding.
He said that power looms industry is running on mixed load feeders, which are subjected to four hours load shedding. He said that a proposal is on the anvil in Faisalabad to construct dedicated feeders and shift power looms and other cottage industry on these feeders. So that these feeders could be exempted from load shedding, he said.
About the briefing of Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Committee showed its displeasure for not giving a comprehensive briefing to the Committee. The Committee said that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture was not fully prepared for the briefing and deferred the issue to be taken up in next meeting.
While Secretary Ministry of textile industry briefing the Committee, informed the committee that through use of BT cotton varieties in Pakistan the damage to cotton by bollworms has been reduced, last year 2010 eight varieties namely FH-113, Neelum- 121, Sitara-OOB, MG-6. AA-703, A.A-B02, NIBGE-IR-1524, NEHGE-IR-3701 and one hybrid G-N20B5 were approved by Punjab Seed council for general cultivation.
This year 2011 nine new cotton varieties originated from Public and Private sectors, have been recommended by the experts sub-committee to the Punjab Seed Council. The Committee members said that sub-standard seed of cotton is damaging cotton crop. They said that seed mafia is pocketing billions of rupees. They said that the ministry and its research centre are not taking any step for the benefits of small farmers. Mahmood Hayat Khan Tochi, Abdul Rashid Godil, Waseem Akhtar Sheikh, Rana Asif Tauseef, Ms Raheela Baloch and Parliamentary Secretary attended the meeting.