Purchase of power, construction of projects, levy on electricity: Punjab government seeks removal of ambiguities

The Punjab government with the support of other provinces has submitted proposals to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to decide and remove ambiguities related to levying duty on electricity, purchase and distribution of electricity and construction of power projects.
After the passage of 18th Constitution Amendment, the provinces are facing problems, ambiguities and disputes pertaining to powers of various departments including electricity, health, taxes and other departments. According to documents available with Business Reorder, Punjab has submitted six proposals to the CCI for discussion and taking a decision regarding the problems and issues being faced by provinces.
The proposals are:
"(i) While Provinces, at the moment, are not in the business of bulk purchase and distribution of electricity under Article 157(2), nothing in the Constitution bars the provinces from doing so and a Province may, at any time, enter into such an arrangement with PEPCO or any other power producer.
(ii) Provincial governments entrusted their functions under Article 157 to WAPDA at a time when the supply and demand situation was quite satisfactory. The underlying rationale was that the Federal Government would be able to meet the entire demand of electricity in the provinces. However, in the current situation when the Federal Government is not able to fulfil the requirements, the provinces have a legal and constitutional right to withdraw from the said arrangement, or make additional generation arrangements and undertake their functions in terms of Article 157(2) of the Constitution.
(iii) The transfer of the subject of electricity to Federal Legislative list does not per se bar the provinces from legislating on the subject for purposes of Article 157(2) of the Constitution and the levy of duty on electricity. In the circumstances, the provinces continue to have executive authority in terms of the said Article.
(iv) The expression "Provinces can construct" used in Article 157(2) cannot be interpreted to imply that provinces should construct power houses only themselves and cannot engage private sector or any other outside agency for construction. Such an interpretation negates the very objective of the provisions. If the provinces are empowered to carry out a function, they can get the function performed through an agency as well.
(v) A project constructed under Article 157(2) of the Constitution has to be treated as public sector power project if any entity, autonomous body, institute or department of the province has any stake of any size in the project.
(vi) If there is still any doubt, appropriate remedial steps need to be taken by the Federal Government to remove ambiguities so that the Provinces can play their rightful role in generation of electricity."