Prime minister calls for measures to reduce power tariff
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Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday directed the concerned authorities to take immediate steps to bring down electricity prices and reduce the additional burden on consumers caused by pilferage and other leakages in the power sector, Radio Pakistan reported.
The premier issued the order this while chairing a meeting of the energy task force in Islamabad, where he was briefed about various developments in the energy sector.
“It’s unacceptable that the common people have to suffer due to theft and mismanagement committed by others,” PM Khan said.
The meeting was informed that a comprehensive energy policy is being devised keeping in view the country's energy needs for the next 25 years.
Moreover, “steps are also being taken to reduce the dependence on imported fuel and promote the use of indigenous resources”, the premier was told.
The meeting was also briefed on technology that is being used to make the process of supply and distribution of electricity more efficient and effective.
PM Khan directed the power division to present a detailed plan to ensure the availability of quality equipment. It was also decided that the government would conduct seismic surveys to expedite the process of oil and gas exploration.
The premier also issued directives for the provision of foolproof security to oil and gas companies working in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The premier was reported to have welcomed the return of international oil and gas exploration company Exxon to the country and said the government will provide all-out assistance to foreign companies working in this sector.
Earlier in the day, the Economic Coordination Committee, chaired by Finance Minister Asad Umar, had announced that it was putting off a decision on a proposed hike in the power tariff.
The finance minister had said the decision to revise tariffs was conditional on power distribution companies making a demonstrable cut in line losses and electricity theft.
After having raised gas prices, the PTI government has been working on a proposal to increase electricity tariff by an average of Rs2 per unit to partially finance the ever-rising circular debt.
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Comments (45) Closed
Oct 22, 2018 09:19pm
Right move by the PM Officials must recover their bills and must stop theft as has KE done so successfully.
KE must be asked to pay back consumers any extra or excessive billing by them before they get NOC. .
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Oct 22, 2018 09:20pm
25 years planing of energy supply-deman great idea. This has to be done at citiy level. Take federal government out of this equation. They should only regulate and not control the supply of energy.
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Oct 22, 2018 09:33pm
Why not immediately order a high powered team to supervise the power distribution companies the scale and locales where electric power is being stolen and bring the culprits to book promptly. The future programs will also fail due to gross leakage. One can reduce the transmission losses by redesign of improvements, but stealing through leakage causes huge unnecessary loss which must be stopped immediately.
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Oct 22, 2018 09:35pm
Like the uturn on gas prices; the notification for electricity tariff increase will be made in a few days.
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Oct 22, 2018 09:36pm
Atleast someone is thinking wise!! Electricity theft is a major problem which previous governments did not do anything about because the most thieves actually belong to it supported the two main political parties (PPP and PML-N)
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Oct 22, 2018 09:37pm
U-turn coming. Its mean prices are going up in a few days!
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Oct 22, 2018 09:40pm
When previous govt wanted kpk govt help in bills recovery they were refused cooperation.
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Oct 22, 2018 09:47pm
Very seriously pakistan should outsource electricity from either Iran or India it will be cost effective I guess.
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Oct 22, 2018 09:59pm
the price hike was a quick lesson for PTI government that lost its own won seats in the by elections within two months since coming into power. generally by-elections are a cleansweep story for the party in power
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Oct 22, 2018 10:10pm
@Shahid privatize and regulate - all leakages will go away. The West is using wireless meters. Automate every thing. Corruption will go away automatically.
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Oct 22, 2018 10:12pm
Very basic and simple rule. Use to the maximum, the Hydroelectric power and firm it up for the bleak periods with Thermal power. Ours is the other way round. In addition, use appropriate technologies for power generation.Thermal Power turbines is very appropriate technology for Pakistan. It is a combined system to generate power by capturing the heat in dry desert climates and their night storage canopies serve as Green Farming Houses, for tremendous free benefits of converting deserts to high production farmlands. Think of Cholistan and Thar deserts.
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Oct 22, 2018 10:24pm
What a politics. It is not NS Government that has increased power tariff and now the PTI government is sympathizing with the people by reducing the tariffs. Zardari rightly said that IK is immature and incompetent to run the government affairs.
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Oct 22, 2018 10:36pm
As per available estimates, Pakistan suffers from around 25-40% line losses. If they could only stop most of the theft, that much electricity does not need to be produced, and the money can be saved. Having said this, newly built plants have to be paid for whether they are working for or not, and that's something Sharif govt did not think about in their desperation to sign the contracts.
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Oct 22, 2018 10:38pm
i am missing Faward C.
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Oct 22, 2018 10:40pm
Time to reduce theft of electricity. Especially in KPK. During Nawaz government KPK government stance was theft of electricity is being done with the conievance of WAPDA which is under the control of Central government. Now WAPDA is also under the control PTI.It is hoped that electricity theft will be reduced. Consequently losses of electricity will be reduced.
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Oct 22, 2018 10:40pm
Most people with AC units are common men. But even they are involved in this theft. All you have to do is to pay a bribe to your local linesman before the start of summer, and your bill would be reasonable regardless of how much electricity you have used. The linesman would balance the figure by billing the poorest of the lot who only use one bulb and a fan. And they can pay the bill by selling their blood.
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Oct 22, 2018 10:43pm
@WARRIs unfortunately in PMLN time,biggest obstacle to go after power theft were pti mpas and most of power theft happened in kpk.in peshawar,pesco office was put on fire by pti protesters while taking action for power.
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Oct 22, 2018 10:44pm
This government seems confused - one day they say price will be increased next day PM says price should be decreased and finance minister say price increase will depends on cutting theft and second day again says price will be increased.
Next summer will be brutal with power cuts.
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Oct 22, 2018 10:49pm
@warris i dont think its like this. You can go kpk and find many areas not paying bills, and havent payed any for long time
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Oct 22, 2018 10:49pm
Good move, curb or stop the stealing, then don't need to increase the tariff. I heard that some industrialists have hidden under-ground power feeders going to their factories directly from the grid / substation. If the government can catch few of these industrialist and make them pay with heavy fine and jail time, Individuals who help the government to catch these, should be given 20% recovered money as a reward.
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Oct 22, 2018 10:52pm
More priority should be given to arrest those who are stealing electricity illegally. Cost will come down by itself
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Oct 22, 2018 11:01pm
So its mean princes are going up again!
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Oct 22, 2018 11:08pm
Thank you dear PM. In my area theft/losses show up as 70% percent. This means for hundred houses, only 30 pay their bills. Upon stifling with the SDO, the losses immediately changed to 38% and our bills inflated. It was later found that the theft/loss percentage changes per recovery that needs to be made by the disco. The state discos are shameless and deserve privatisation.
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Oct 22, 2018 11:21pm
If you reduce power tariffs how will you close the budget gap? The mythical $200 billion is not coming back anytime soon, In fact there is case for enhancing these tariffs and stopping ALL subsidies.
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Oct 22, 2018 11:25pm
@WARRIs Let the tariffs reduce first. So far it has only gone upwards.
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Oct 22, 2018 11:26pm
The common people? I would like every leader of Pakistan to refer to us as citizens of Pakistan, not common people. I don't know if the media translates it that way or the word common is used by our leaders, either way, its degrading, people aren't common, we are all important in our own little ways.
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Oct 22, 2018 11:28pm
First right move ! but need implementation.KESC itself giving connections without meters.On fix rate ! promoting kunda system !
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Oct 22, 2018 11:32pm
Excellent move by the PM. People need education to understand what has been done to the country by the previous regimes. It will take time before people start respecting the system and believing in their leaders.
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Oct 22, 2018 11:38pm
How these leaders will bring change.Poor nation's wealthy politicians.There is no clean water available for the 90% of population and they are enjoying mineral water bottles bought from people taxes money.In each govt meetings,conferences,seminars etc.And tv talk shows etc. There are mineral water bottles on tables.Why tap water is not served to them!
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Oct 23, 2018 12:02am
Why the people are not finding thieves? People have collective responsibilities to find these people. Otherwise people have pay for it.
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Oct 23, 2018 12:42am
If the stolen land can be recovered , electricity theft can be stopped , this will be a test for Imran Khan .
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Oct 23, 2018 12:47am
IMF will ask to increase soon to collect more revenues.
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Oct 23, 2018 12:55am
“Theft” “Others”, this man is a full on zero if these two words are removed from his vocabulary.
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Oct 23, 2018 01:19am
Sensible decision by the PM to put off a decision on a proposed hike in power tariff. PM has rightly pointed out that the common man must not always suffer due to incompetence of institutions and financial mismanagement.
Is there any country in the world where national grid employees get electricity at discounted rates? Meters are often tempered with by low level WAPDA employees. Honest consumers are put through hell when genuine faults are identified in their meters. If you ever have to get a wrong bill rectified or claim a refund, you'll have an idea of the customer service being provided by WAPDA which is worst in world.
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Oct 23, 2018 01:19am
Looking at the faces of the bureaucrats it seems they havent been asked to work seriously before this
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Oct 23, 2018 01:22am
What a contradiction. It is his administration that raised tariffs. Not sure why is he complaining at the same time?
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Oct 23, 2018 02:04am
Unfortunately the price for misdeeds, mismanagement, or corruption of the big shots in this Islamic Republic of Pakistan has to be paid through the noses of the innocent people. Question ; Have the palaces and big bungalows of the barons like Mr.Nawaz, Mr. Zardari etc ever remained without power/energy/light? Have such 'waderas' of Pakistan ever worried or be concerned about the price or supply of those services?
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Oct 23, 2018 02:06am
Only a few years back, Pirme Minister was urging consumers to burn their power bills. His party's govenment in KP was attacking grid stations and practically encourgaing power theft.
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Oct 23, 2018 02:59am
catch all electricity thefts in all Pakistan. Gas theft also. appoint ministers upon each 50 top tasks to monitor hour to hour dby day with log books all projects to revive new new laws new new methods short time and one window soon soon early early controls and completions of Tasks Projects.
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Oct 23, 2018 04:06am
I feel that supply and distribution can be managed better by the Chinese. They should be immediately approached for help.
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Oct 23, 2018 04:37am
I would suggest that first, PM and all other parliamentarians, stop wasting electricity in fact they can afford to put up solar and other alternatives for private use, so indeed top5-6% rich elites in Pakistan should go totally off grid. Also, all industries should be given incentives to produce and use their own power via alternatives. Thirdly, power use by all government departments , officials and staff etc should be severely curtailed , no more free rides like WAPDA or Railways colonies etc; indeed armed forces must also now stop availing freebies. And all major defaulters , official or private, should be made to pay up at once. By these steps not only can we provide power to domestic consumers at affordable tariffs, we can also recover additional revenues.
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Oct 23, 2018 05:37am
Mr khan common people not responsible for ever rising circular debt.so i do not think common people made the scapegoat and pay to price hike.
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Oct 23, 2018 06:02am
Govt should speed up the recovery of looted money to reduce the circular debt and should give relief to the people .
People have suffered enough and now it's time for looter to suffer . We the people support IK until he do things what is good for the country . Chop the hands of electricity theife in a Islamic way
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Oct 23, 2018 07:59am
Dear Asad Umar,
k electric generated Rs 16 billion profit in 2016 despite having around 20% losses. What does that imply? It implies that tarrifs are more than sufficient to generate lofty profits. Its about management, monitoring and efficiency and curbing corruption within the organization. Public is not to be blamed for theft and losses. It is the disco employees that facilitate the theft by taking hefty bribes.
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Oct 23, 2018 08:14am
The government will do well by ruthlessly curbing the power theft and line loss instead of raising the electricity charges.The honest people who diligently pay the bills why should they be burdened with additional charges.The thieves should be hauled up.Many government offices use air conditioners carelessly while they don’t pay the electricity bills which has piled up into billions,The government should recover the amount from those government offices first and then launch a campaign to recover every penny from th defaulters.It is do able proposition.If PTI government adopts a laid back attitude then there will be no difference between them and the previous thorough bred corrupt government.Passing the buck to those who regularly pay the bills will be unwise and imprudent.
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