ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to stop providing free electricity to officers of electricity companies and instead pay them a sum.
According to sources, this summary will be presented for approval in today’s (Wednesday) federal cabinet meeting. The meeting has issued a revised agenda consisting of 11 points.
According to sources, it has been decided to pay Grade 17 and above officers of distribution and generation companies sums in place of free units. This decision will be implemented after the federal cabinet’s approval.
It has been proposed that Grade 17 officers of distribution companies should receive Rs15,858 monthly instead of 450 free units, Grade 18 officers Rs21,996 monthly instead of 600 units, Grade 19 officers Rs37,594 monthly instead of 880 units, Grade 20 officers Rs46,992 monthly instead of 1,100 units, and Grade 21 officers of Discos should receive Rs55,536 monthly instead of 1,300 units.
For Karachi, the matter of increasing electricity rates will also be presented to the federal cabinet meeting. Sources said it is suggested that approval will be sought for increasing the electricity rate by Rs1.72 per unit. The increase will be in the form of adjustments for the second and third quarters of the past fiscal year.
A decision by the ECC will be presented for approval in the federal cabinet. The proposed increase for the January to March 2023 quarterly adjustment is Rs1.25 per unit. There will be an increase of 47 paisas per unit for the October to December 2022 quarterly adjustment. Additional recoveries from Karachi electricity consumers will be made in the next three months. Recoveries will be made in December 2023, and January and February 2024. A decision has been taken to maintain the uniform electricity tariff in the country.
A review will be made in the cabinet meeting on matters regarding the fifth round of free trade agreements with Gulf countries. The fifth round took place from September 26 to 28 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The revised Hajj policy 2024 will also be presented in the cabinet meeting with some changes. Approval will also be sought for the imposition of taxes on banks for extraordinary profits on foreign exchange in the fiscal year 2021 to 2022.
Approval will be taken to include more countries in the Pakistan Business Visa Online List. Approval for Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council’s budget for 2023 to 2024 is included in the agenda. Approval will be given for the inclusion and exclusion of names from the ECL.
The ECCP decisions of November 1 and November 10 meetings will also be endorsed. The decisions made in the cabinet’s Energy Committee meeting on October 26 will be endorsed. Some exemptions will be approved for the TCP for importing 200,000 metric tonnes of urea.
