Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said that the government and all of its relevant departments were purely focused on providing low-cost electricity to domestic and other consumers besides bringing in reforms to achieve economic stability.
“Our sole focus is to reduce power prices to provide relief to domestic consumers, agriculture, industry, exports and business sectors. This is inevitable to steer the economy of prevailing issues. The competitiveness of exports is linked with the cheap electricity,” the prime minister said addressing the newly appointed chairmen and board members of the power distribution companies (DISCOS).
The participants included the board members and chairmen of Lahore Electric Supply Company, Islamabad Electric Supply Company, Faisalabad Electric Supply Company, Multan Electric Power Company and Hazara Electric Supply Company.
Calling the low-cost electricity and efficient power transmission system the major factors for a stable economy, he said the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) were focused on achieving the said targets.
He told the participants that the government would publicly recognise the Discos members and heads who would 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.
The prime minister said through a lengthy process, the government had appointed highly competent and experienced people in DISCOS purely on merit by doing away with the political appointees.
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 Rs500 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”, Prime Minister Shehbaz said.
He said that the circular debt had touched Rs2300 billion – almost one-third of the country’s total receipts of Rs9 trillion last year. Can a country be run with such a huge burden?” he questioned.
Highlighting the issues 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.
The prime minister recalled the installation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants during Nawaz Sharif’s tenure almost a decade ago with 63% efficiency and almost on half of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) tariff which manifested the government’s commitment and willingness to bring improvement.
The prime minister said that the digitization of the DISCOs should be the foremost priority and that after their reforms, the companies would be outsourced and privatised.
In the meeting, the prime minister was told that under the SOE Act, the DISCOs enjoyed autonomy in the policymaking.
Federal ministers Ahad Khan Cheema, Abdul Aleem Khan, Muhammad Aurangzeb and Awais Ahmed Leghari, Special Assistant to PM Muhammad Ali, Coordinator to PM Rana Ehsan Afzal and relevant senior officers attended the meeting.