ISLAMABAD: A ministerial meeting decided on Monday to stop forthwith its over Rs5 billion monthly support to the Karachi Electric Supply Company as price differential subsidy and to conduct a thorough investigation into its affairs.

Sources told Dawn that the meeting, presided over by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and attended by Water and Power Minister Syed Naveed Qamar, Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain and secretaries of the ministries concerned, criticised the functioning of the privatised KESC.

The meeting, however, could not reach agreement on raising electricity tariff because of the acute power shortage across the country.

It decided to release about Rs20 billion over the next few days to power companies to enable them to procure furnace oil to increase power supplies during Ramazan.

The sources said the meeting was informed that the government was extending about Rs5-6 billion subsidy to the KESC on account of tariff differential and fuel subsidies but the company’s affairs were not being run in a transparent manner. It was pointed out that the government had diverted gas from the Sui Southern Gas Company to the KESC for electricity generation but the output shown by the company was not clear.

It was, therefore, decided to stop all kinds of financial support and hold a detailed investigation into KESC’s financial and operational affairs. The sources said a proposal to increase tariff by 2 per cent later this month was opposed by some of the participants who said it would not be a proper thing to do at a time when hardly any category of consumers received uninterrupted power supply.—Khaleeq Kiani