05 November 2004	Friday	21 Ramazan 1425

LAHORE, Nov 4: There will not be any substantial change in power tariff, barring minor adjustments, says Wapda chairman. Talking to newsmen here on Thursday, Tariq Hamid said over a 100 per cent jump in oil prices and a substantial drop in hydel generation had necessitated an increase in power tariff. But neither the government nor the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority had decided to provide any relief to Wapda, and it would most probably be left holding the baby at the end of the current fiscal year.

He claimed that a foolproof security plan had been finalized for Chinese engineers working on Mangla Dam, three small dams along the Karrakoram Highway and Gomal Zam after the death of a Chinese engineer. The plan had also been submitted to the Foreign Office and the Chinese embassy for their satisfaction. Some 300 Frontier Constabulary personnel had been deputed to protect the Chinese engineers working on these projects, he said.

The Wapda chief said it was too early to calculate the cost of delay in Gomal Zam dam. He said the Chinese contractor was already behind schedule when the unfortunate incident of kidnapping and killing took place. It had further delayed the project. "If the Chinese accept the security plan and return to work, the cost of delay may not increase. But the cost may skyrocket if they do not return early," he said.

He insisted that Wapda receivables were within commercial limits if arrears from the Federally Administrative Tribal Areas (Fata) were excluded. There were some delays in payment from Sindh, but they would soon be cleared. The problem of arrears was limited to Fata region. Once it was taken care of, the authority may be out of the crisis, he said.

Talking about additional cost of fuel due to rising international prices, he said the authority would incur a cost of Rs24 billion on this account. He said the government had offered more gas to compensate the authority, and if Wapda got more gas, the additional cost may come down to Rs20 billion. But he was not hopeful about the availability of gas because once temperatures decreased in winter, the gas companies would naturally preferred domestic consumers and supplies to industrial units would face a cut.