Re: Load shedding
The electricity rates in Pakistan are already very high and the ‘awami’ government wants to jack them up further by a whopping Rs 6 per unit.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
Power tariff bomb for consumers
Citizens, businessmen, industrialists reject power tariff hike
** Consumers ready for protests against Rs 6.39 per unit hike from May
By Shabbir Sarwar*
LAHORE: While rejecting the single largest increase in power tariff in the history of the country citizens, business community and industrialists have expressed very serious concern over National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s (NEPRA) decision to increase electricity tariff by Rs 6.39 per unit for months of May, June, July and August in the name of monthly fuel adjustment.
They have termed it as a conspiracy against the government, people and the industry stating they would never accept this decision.
Unfortunately this decision has been taken at a time when the State Bank of Pakistan has already admitted that climate in Pakistan is not conducive for investment due to high input rates. The government is making the operations of even existing industries impossible by jacking up the input cost further, said Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Irfan Qaiser.
Consumer Rights Council activist Ghulam Murtaza said that electricity consumers were already in a very miserable condition due to scheduled and unscheduled massive load shedding in the city. Under such circumstances unprecedented increase in the power tariff in the history of the country is impossible to bear. There would be massive protests in the country and no one from lower and middle class would accept this decision.
Other consumers including Azhar Mustafa, Saleem Ahmed, Nadeem Ahmed, Arshad Manzoor, Khalid Mirza and Khurram Khawaja also condemned the government for this decision and urged the high-ups to take this decision back.
**It is noteworthy that NEPRA has also approved power tariff increase by Rs 2.22 per unit for October, Rs 1.27 for November, 98 paisas for December and Rs 1.96 for January. The new rates will be applicable from May.
The LCCI president has said that only because of the ongoing energy crisis the country had lost three percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) while it is facing a serious lack of investment from both internal and external fronts for the last four years.** The LCCI president said that the government decision to raise electricity prices is bound to hit investments, manufacturing, exports and trade besides increasing the incidence of electricity pilferage that already is 25 percent of the 22 percent line losses and eating up Rs 50-75 billion.
The LCCI president said that how the industry would remain competitive at such a high price of electricity, which is one of the basic industrial raw materials. We already have the highest tariff in our region as in India, the electricity tariff for industry is 10.5 cents, Bangladesh 10.75 cents and Sri Lanka 10.75 cent whereas in Pakistan tariff is already 15 cents meaning that 45 percent higher as compared to the region. With this proposed massive and unprecedented increase, we will have double the tariff of electricity what the regional countries are offering to their trade and industries leaving Pakistan totally uncompetitive and unviable in the international market place.
Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) Wednesday took a strong exception to the huge increase in electricity tariff and urged the government to withdraw this raise without any further delay. PIAF Chairman Engineer Sohail Lashari termed the NEPRA decision a conspiracy against the government. He said that the unprecedented raise in the electricity rates had put a question mark on the ability of the government to run the affairs of the country.
The PIAF chairman said that at a time when the businesses were in bad shape due to shortage of electricity, a hike in its tariff would push the entire economy to the wall. **He said that it was beyond the understanding of the private sector that for how long the government would continue to rely on expensive thermal power when the country has a huge hydel power potential for decades to come. **He said that the government had failed to make a decision on Kalabagh Dam during the last four years of its tenure and it is very unfortunate for the national economy. The PIAF chairman said that the government should concentrate on building water reservoirs in the country otherwise there would be no buyer of Pakistani merchandise in the international market because of their high price.
Engineer Lashari said that the government should take cue from other regional players to provide an enabling business atmosphere to the business doing people.
The LCCI president said, “The country had already lost a number of international markets to China, Bangladesh and India due to high cost of doing business and the decision to increase power tariff would make the Pakistani goods more uncompetitive.”
He said that the business community was unable to understand that instead of taking measures to control line losses and enhance cheap power generation up to capacity, the policies are being evolved to add to the miseries of the business doing people.
Sheikh said that negative growth witnessed by the large-scale manufacturing sector was indeed an eye opener and a wake up call to the government. He said that the industry needs cheaper electricity to keep the units operational and to complete the export orders well within the given timeframe but only because of the shortage of electricity the exports are not up to the mark.
It is pertinent to mention here that the State Bank of Pakistan in its quarterly report has noted that there has been almost no improvement in the investment component, despite the reduction in the cost of borrowing. The national economy has been facing serious lack of investment from both internal and external front for the last four years. The slashing of the policy interest rate by 2 percent to 12 percent has failed to trigger borrowings from the private sector for expansion.
“The low demand for fixed investment loans is largely due to persistent energy shortages, unfavourable law and order situation and excess capacity in the industrial sector.”
