THE power crisis is worsening with every passing day in spite of injection of huge funds by the government specially for reducing load-shedding in the country.
Finance minister says funding alone cannot resolve the crisis and restructuring of the sector is desperately needed.
“However, the managements of utility companies are showing least interest in bringing about any reform”, an official in the ministry of finance told this scribe.
In the meeting of the National standing Committee on Textile, MNA Syed Akhonzada Chitan said whatever efforts the government made would not succeed because the bureaucracy was resisting such efforts.
An official of the ministry of water and power said the key issue was high cost of oil-based power generation.
Electricity was being produced at around Rs12 per unit while it was being sold at about Rs8 per unit to customers. The gap is met by government subsidy of Rs4 per unit.
Disagreeing, MNA Mahammad Hayat Tochi Khan was of the view that a majority of top managements was drawing huge salaries but had nothing to offer for solution of the problem.
“The former managing director of Pepco Azhar Masood was hired on a salary package of Rs8 million per month but he did not bringany change in the corporation,” he stated.
If the hiring of top managements of power sector on such big pay packages are made, it ultimately increases the cost of power generation, more so, when they fail to deliver.
Moreover, of about Rs60 billion released recently by the finance ministry, only 15 per cent of it was used for power generation and no details have yet been provided about the remaining amount to the finance ministry despite its repeated requests to the relevant people.
A Pepco official said a major portion of the released funds was utilised as subsidy as the cost of production of power was higher than the sale price.
He said the line losses were reduced by 0.5 per cent (from 15.8 to 15.3 per cent) and it was made possible by vigorous steps. “
Among other steps, about 34,000 First Investigation Report (FIR) were also lodged against thefts,” he stated.
MNA Abdul Rashid Godil said the data of line losses were not correct because losses were up to 40 per cent, adding that the half per cent cut in the losses in one year was also not satisfactary.
The Pepco is responsible for energy crisis as its staff is involved in power theft and other losses. “Everything will become clear if the assets of each employee is fully investigated”, he added.
While about 3000MW of power has been added to the National Grid, load-shedding has increased. Each power plant is degraded by five per cent annually, resulting in reduction of capacity by an average of 400MW per year.
The non-serious attitude of the managements of utility companies can be observed at the routine meetings of the National Assembly Standing Committees on power sector.
The head of these companies do not attend these meetings despite summon notices.
The senate standing committee was to be held on July 10 to review the status of implementation of its recommendations, but it was cancelled due to absence of the federal secretary of ministry of water and power and Federal Minister Ahmed Mukhtar.
Moreover, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Textile has issued nine notices to MD KSEC, MD Pepco and MD Nepra but neither they attended the meeting, nor preferred to send any update regarding the implementation of the committee’srecommendations.
The government should take serious action against the executives running the power sector irrespective of their affiliation with any political party or person before the situation further deteriorates.