ISLAMABAD: The Privat­is­ation Commission has informed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Privatisation that presently no power distribution company (Disco) was being privatised, as the management contract or concession agreement model had been approved by the cabinet and its relevant committee.

However, after Sindh government showed interest, the power ministry offered other provinces to acquire the Discos falling in their respective jurisdictions, Secretary Privatisation Dr Iram A. Khan informed the committee on Tuesday.

Privatisation Minister Abid Hussain Bhayo said the Sindh government was already into power generation and transmission; therefore, it was a logical decision to get into the distribution business as well.

The committee proposed that the existing Discos needed to be split further into smaller units and the policy of uniform tariff should also be dropped for the real competitive market to be in place. This proposed mechanism would have an inherent system of checks and balances for underperforming Discos to work on their technical and commercial losses to reduce the tariff for consumers.

However, the committee members noted that in the case Discos were provincialised, a province would own and operate these power distribution companies, but the generation and transmission would remain with the federal government, further complicating the already complex power sector.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2022