ISLAMABAD, April 14: The Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) will distribute 10 million energy-saver tubes and bulbs among consumers free of cost in order to save electricity in an effort to tide over the power crisis in the country.

The task of distributing the energy-saver bulbs has been given to Pepco by the Energy Conservation Centre (Enercon), a department of the Ministry of Environment.

Ministry of Environment spokesman Ramzan Sajjid told Dawn that the project had been included in the prime minister’s recently-announced 100-day programme for providing relief to the people.

At a meeting held in the Enercon building on Monday, Environment Minister Hameedullah Jan Afridi directed the FBR to prepare a summary for the cabinet for exemption of duty on energy savers. It will be a one-time waiver for manufacturing companies.

The minister directed Pepco officials to check the capacity of local manufacturers to find out if they would be in a position to provide 10 million energy savers.

If local companies are not able to meet the demand, arrangements be made for their import, the spokesman quoted the minister as saying.

It may be mentioned that the previous 15 per cent duty on energy savers was reduced to 10 per cent last year.

Mr Afridi said the government was committed to providing relief to the people and was working on the 100-day crash programme for energy conservation to minimise load-shedding.

The high-level meeting, arranged to review the National Energy Conservation policy, was also attended by Enercon managing-director Farid Ullah Khan, representatives of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Industries and Production, Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR), Food and Agriculture, Capital Development Authority (CDA), Nepra, Provincial Environmental Protection Agencies and other stakeholders.

The meeting decided to provide tariff relief on energy conservation products and appliances.

The meeting decided to authorise provincial environment departments to look after implementation of the approved conservation policy.

It was also decided that Time-of-Use meters be introduced and recommended for all major industrial consumers.

The minister stressed the need for exploiting the energy conservation potential because generation as an immediate remedy was not available. The minister urged the departments concerned to minimise line losses of electricity and gas.