Sialkot industry: electricity issues to be resolved on priority, says minister

Federal Minister for Water and Power, Syed Naveed Qamar has said that electricity issues of export oriented industry of Sialkot will be resolved on priority and efforts will be made for smooth power supply to the industry for maximum duration. He said this while taking to a delegation of Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry who called on him along with Khawaja Asif, MNA here on Tuesday.
Minister said that unscheduled load shedding both for industrial and domestic consumers have been lifted after improving power generation. He said that due to canal closure the gap between demand and supply had been widened. However, the demand-supply gap is being managed through maximum generation from thermal plants. The minister also directed CEO of Gujranwala Electric Supply Company to visit Sialkot Chamber and finalise load management plan with them. He also asked Sialkot Chamber to identify the names of industrial dominated feeders so that proper arrangements may be made to provide them uninterrupted power supply.
Earlier, the President of Sialkot Chamber of Commerce, Naeem Anwar Qureshi briefed the minister on the matters regarding power shortages for Sialkot industry. He said that the export-oriented industry of Sialkot is facing problems due to power outages and asked the minister to resolve it on priority so that they may be able to complete their export consignments timely to earn foreign exchange for country. He assured that the industrialists should cooperate with the government and find out amicable solution with the help of Gepco and NPCC.
Meanwhile presiding over another meeting, Naveed Qamar directed the chief executives of Discos to meet recovery target of Rs 40 billion set for January. He said that maximum recovery of dues will help to pay the oil companies timely so that there should no decline in the generation. He asked them to recover both current and outstanding amount from the defaulters. The minister asked them to involve the district administration to recover maximum amount from the defaulters. He asked the CEO to also meet the recovery target set to recover from defaulters. He asked to announce special incentives for the staff to recover amount from the defaulters. The companies should also improve their performance and reduce line losses, he directed.-PR