Providing Affordable Electricity Govt’s Top Priority: PM Shehbaz

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Tuesday said that the government is purely focused on providing cheap electricity to consumers besides bringing in reforms to achieve economic stability. The premier said the government’s sole focus is to reduce power prices to provide relief to domestic consumers, agriculture, industry, and business sectors. This is inevitable to steer the economy of prevailing issues. The competitiveness of exports is linked with cheap electricity,” he added while addressing the newly appointed chairmen and board members of the power distribution companies (Discos). Calling the low-cost electricity and efficient power transmission system the major factors for a stable economy, he said he and the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) were focused on achieving the said targets. He said the government would publicly recognize the Discos members and heads who put in their maximum efforts to bring improvements, but those failing to do so would neither be spared nor would remain part of the team. He said the newly appointed chairmen and members had great challenges ahead which necessitated working hard day and night to purge the Discos of mismanagement and corruption. He said the power theft had swelled to around annual Rs. 500 billion mainly due to connivance with the Discos staffers who were also the reason behind destroying the institutions. “This is the greatest challenge for you. The government has made deliberations as to how the system should be improved. You will have to show your best,” the premier said. He said that the circular debt had touched Rs. 2,300 billion – almost one-third of the country’s total receipts of Rs. 9 trillion last year. Can a country be run with such a huge burden?” he questioned. Highlighting the issue of line losses and weak transmission systems, he instructed the immediate launch of smart metering in some of the Discos. He told the meeting that the government was in talks with China to run power plants with a mix of coal to save $1 billion annually.