Govt turns back on renewable energy

LAHORE: The federal government has not announced any incentive or relief for attracting investment in renewable energy.

Even the finance minister did not mention renewable energy in his speech except the accomplishment during their term, in which generation capacity of energy was described. Although as per the budget speech of Miftah Ismail, the government expressed commitment to introducing alternative energy in all walks of life with a view to reduce dependence on consumption of fossil fuel. But, in this regard, the government failed to take any measure except some steps for promoting use of electric cars, which have no direct link with renewable energy.

The finance minister announced proposals for promoting usage of electric vehicles, which are environment friendly, and said an enabling fiscal environment for its related infrastructure was needed.

The government has proposed withdrawal of 16 percent customs duty on charging stations for electric vehicles. Moreover, the government proposed reducing custom duty on import of electric cars from 50 percent to 25 percent, in addition to exemption from regulatory duty of 15 percent. Import of CKD kits for assembly of domestically produced electric cars was proposed at 10 percent.

As per Finance Minister, LED is an efficient alternative to save energy. However to further incentivise domestic manufacturing in Pakistan, five percent customs duty on specified LED parts and components, is proposed to be withdrawn.

Under the head of energy, Mifah said, “Our government has invested heavily in energy sector. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government fulfilled its promise of availability of electricity and added generation capacity of 12,230 megawatts to the national grid. Let me highlight the key completed projects based on a diverse mix of low cost power generation sources including coal, RLNG, wind, solar and hydel. These included among others, over 1,000MW renewable energy projects with zero fuel costs.”

There are a few schemes mentioned in the budget documents which will be financed with the help of international donors.