ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is likely to announce on Friday an estimated Rs21 billion subsidy for power sector consumers to maintain a country-wide uniform domestic tariff and reduce industrial and commercial tariff.

Informed sources said this was expected to be part of his first speech to the nation in which he would deliberate upon his vision of the country's future and broad parameters of economic policies to achieve targets.

The prime minister, the sources said, would preside over a meeting about power sector on Thursday to approve the subsidy worked out on tariff determinations given by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on the review petitions of the eight distribution companies of Wapda.

The meeting, to be attended by the minister for water and Power, chairmen of Wapda and Nepra and managing director of Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB), will also discuss new private power projects and procedural incentives to overcome problems in their implementation.

The announcement of the decision to revise power tariff has been kept on hold for over 15 days, though the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been informed by the finance ministry about the tariff adjustment.

A senior official of the power ministry said the overall power tariff would reduce by an average 10-12 per cent, but the new structure has been so designed that maximum relief would go to industrial and commercial consumers. The domestic tariff would remain unchanged as part of the government's policy to phase out cross subsidies by 2010.

He said that under Nepra's determination, the tariffs of loss-making companies like Hyderabad, Peshawar, Quetta and Tribal electric supply companies should have increased, but the government had decided to pick up their loss as subsidy to maintain a uniform tariff.