Islamabad must stop interference urges Power distribution companies

Islamabad must stop interference urges Power distribution companies

Thursday, December 22: The boards of directors of power distribution companies showed their concerns about too much interference from Islamabad and the absence of decisive powers.

In a meeting of Boards of Directors of power distribution companies, the chairman of each board spoke about the despondent state of affairs that has brought a situation where these boards could not initiate much-needed reforms.

“Islamabad must behave and stop interference in running these companies,” said Ahmad Rafay Alam, chairman of BoDs of Lahore Electricity Supply Company (LESCO).

The chairman continued that these interferences have forbidden the LESCO management to even take actions against those who are involved in power theft. He said the police were not cooperating to catch those involved in power theft.

Multan Electricity Power Company (MEPCO) Chairman Rehman Naeem said that the boards’ powers have been overlapped by the powers of Pakistan Electric Power Company. He said so far the board could only approve a short-term business
plan.

Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) asked the government to clear its Rs18.6 billion dues on account of freezing tariffs from 2008 to 2010

Naveed Qamar, Federal Minister for Water and Power, said “There should not be unrealistic hopes for immediate drastic reforms but what is important that the government has set right directions.”

Qamar confessed that with current situation everything will go down and despite all efforts the changes were moving very slowly. Federal Minister for Water and Power also advised distribution companies to take more responsibility.

The other common thing was that none of BOD’s could introduce significant reforms in their respective entities despite the fact that the delay has already cost Rs1,000 billion in subsidies in the past three years.

“We all have collectively failed and there is a need to write a new chapter”, said Dr Nadeem ul Haque, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission. He said the sector has already cost Rs1,000 billion in three years and still bleeding.

Haque signed-off by saying, “It is little sad the country could not make things happen in 20 years and now it reached a point where up to 3 per cent of economic growth is shaved off every year due to power outages and the budget
deficit remains beyond the target due to massive subsidies.”

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Posted by Wajahat Javed on Dec 23 2011. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry