ISLAMABAD: The ministries of water and power and finance want the federal cabinet to rush through the process for proposed amendments to the Nepra Act without waiting for the final views of provincial governments.

The proposed speedy process, according to the two ministries, stems from a deadline-based conditionality of $400-700 million foreign lending inflows.

In an urgent summary sent to the federal cabinet, the ministry of water and power has called for permission for vetting of draft amendment law by the ministry of law and justice and a blanket exemption from reconsideration of the vetted draft law by the cabinet.

It said the Council of Common Interests had on May 2, 2017, granted approval to the proposed amendments to the Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997 (commonly known as Nepra Act), subject to final clearance in a meeting to be held between the minister for water and power and the provincial chief ministers.

The summary said the minister for water and power had a detailed meeting with chief ministers of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and senior representatives of Punjab and Balochistan on May 9. “Outstand­ing concerns of the provincial governments on the draft amendments to the Nepra Act were addressed at this meeting, in light of which it was mutually agreed to make some further modifications to the proposed amendments,” the summary claimed, adding that a “consensus draft matrix of proposed amendments was prepared and circulated to the provinces on May 10”.

The ministry confirmed that written concurrence of the provincial governments to this matrix of proposed amendments was awaited. “However, since this is a case subject to certain deadlines as informed by the finance ministry,” it was proposed that further provincial government input, if any, may be incorporated at the stage of finalising the draft bill before its submission to the law and justice division.

In the meantime, the summary suggested that on the basis of “consensus” arrived at in the chief ministers meeting of May 9, a draft bill of the proposed amendments to the Nepra Act containing statements of “objects and reasoning as well as tabular summary for amendments” be given approval in principle by the cabinet under rule 27(1) of the Rules of Business, 1973, before submission to the law and justice division for vetting.

The power ministry also requested the cabinet to surrender its powers under section 5 of rule 27 that required submission of the draft bill to the cabinet for clearance. “Further it is proposed that in terms of rule 5A of the rules of business, the cabinet while granting the in-principle approval may also be pleased to dispense with the requirements of rule 5(a) regarding re-submission of the case to the cabinet for approval of the draft bill after being vetted by the law and justice division.”

The ministry claimed that since substantial consultation had already been undertaken between the relevant ministries of the federal government during the course of development of the draft amendments, “this is an appropriate case to allow such dispensation”.

The government has been seeking major changes to the Nepra Act to pass on “actual cost of electricity delivered to consumers including all losses and non-recoveries thereof” through consumer end tariff to put an end to circular debt.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2017