LAHORE, April 17: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Thursday announced 33 per cent subsidy on electricity consumed by agricultural tubewells for the coming Kharif season.

“It (subsidy) will be equally shared by the federal and provincial governments and Wapda,” he said while addressing an awards distribution ceremony of Wapda employees and sportsmen here at the Wapda Auditorium.

Talking to newsmen later, the prime minister said that the government had formed committees to look into the possibilities of cutting power and gas tariff. The committees would shortly suggest ways and means.

Replying to a question about the construction of the Kalabagh dam, Mr Jamali said that everything that benefited Pakistan should be built, but he refused to give any timetable for the same.

Earlier, while addressing the ceremony, the prime minister said that he was largely satisfied with the performance of Wapda but there was still a lot of room for improvement and the authority must strive for it.

“Institutions like Wapda are involved in humanitarian work and providing service to people in hot and cold weathers. Such institutions must be given credit for service rather than berated for human errors and system failures.”

The prime minister told his audience that he had a life-time dream of 100 per cent electrification of the country. “Once I went to Germany in 1972. On seeing a remote electrified village, I asked about the state of electrification from a local engineer. He told me that Germany achieved 100 per cent electrification in 1935. Since then, I have cherished this dream.”

Mr jamali said that Wapda had been held hostage to power purchase agreements with independent power producers (IPPs). “A few people made money out of them but the whole nation was paying through its nose. This kind of mistake would not be repeated by my government,” he declared.

The prime minister also promised help to Wapda in its endeavour to progress. The government had been helping Wapda and it would continue doing the same to help make it viable.

Earlier, welcoming the prime minister, Wapda Chairman Zulfiqar Ali Khan spoke about the performance of the utility.