Federal Minister for Energy Khurram Dastgir has said that load shedding is high in one-fourth of the country due to lack of line losses and recovery of bills.
Khurram Dastgir said, “We have added 5,000 MW of power to the system in the last one year, including 2,000 MW of coal-based thermocol power.”
The Energy Minister said that the three CPEC projects which were victims of criminal negligence in the previous years are now fully operational, 2,000 MW are being taken from there and 1100 MW is coming from K3, last year 720 MW electricity came from Crude Hydroelectric Power, thus 3800 MW power has been added to the regular system, there is a Haveli Bahadur Shah plant whenever we need it. If so, we take 1100 MW from there.”
Khurram Dastgir said, “There are two reasons for the decrease in power generation, the prices that were increased last year have reduced the demand, although we have full capacity to make expensive electricity, it will be an unbearable burden on our consumers, we do not run expensive oil, furnace oil and old gas plants so that consumers do not run expensive oil, furnace oil and old gas plants. But the bill didn’t come too much.”
“We have to increase our local resources, work on hydel projects through solar and wind power is going on, in the next 3 to 5 years, the amount of cheap electricity generation will increase and the price for consumers will also be reduced,” he added.
He said, “The IMF does not ask to increase the price of electricity, but to reduce the circular debt and our effort is to reform, the price of electricity in the whole country will be the same, to keep it at one price, the federal government will give a subsidy of 171 billion to Karachi only, it has an effect on the circular date but the government has decisions for its citizens, our government’s The policy is that the new amount of electricity that will be added will not be on imported fuel in any way.”
The federal minister said that Thar coal and nuclear are a big lifeline for Pakistan, we have to increase them, at present the country is divided into two parts, the incoming elected government will have to fix it, in some areas the recovery of bills is more than 80 percent. And there is no recovery of the bills, the price is being paid by the consumers who pay the bills on time, it is a serious issue that where there are severe losses, how to manage them.”
