Water and Power Ministry paints rosy picture of its performance

ISLAMABAD: The top guns of the Water and Power Ministry said Friday that massive improvements in various fields yielded a saving of Rs47 billion or $416 million during 2014-2015 year, and this was not due to the substantial plunge in oil prices.
Water & Power Minister Khawaja M Asif and his Secretary Younus Dagha painted a rosy and encouraging picture by specifying enormous improvements in the electricity-related activities, including increase in generation, controlling thefts/ line losses etc.
Dagha gave a detailed briefing to a group of media men with the help of slides while Asif frequently intervened to explain certain points and answer pertinent questions. Both were well prepared and armed with concrete data.
As usual, questions were not too many and were also hardly up to the mark, dissimilar to the hue and cry in the noisy TV talk shows over power issues. The presentation was apparently an effort to dispel half truths that continue to spread over and over again.
The secretary said since October 2014 till to-date there has not been any increase in the circular debt, now standing at Rs318bn, because of timely payments to the power producers. Previously, he said, a monthly hike of Rs10 billion to Rs15 billion used to occur in this liability.
He said that this was the first time there was zero power outage for the industry since November last except in January and Ramazan when canals are closed and no loadshedding was done respectively during these months.
Dagha said the government was providing subsidies of Rs221 billion and efforts were afoot to lower this burden on the national exchequer. He said that 66 percent of these subsidies goes to domestic consumers, who use a small number of units and are in the lowest tariff slabs. Their tariff starts from Rs2 per unit.
Khawaja Asif said the confidence restored in the power sector was so high that even the LoIs (letter of interests) were now being sold.
The secretary said that to curb discretion of the meter readers they have been provided in some areas with cell phones that they will use to take pictures of the meters that will automatically go in the system. But he admitted that there was a lot of resistance from the corrupt mafia to this move.
Dagha said that electricity would be produced at a cost of Rs12 per unit from the Nandipur plant by use of furnace oil. The generation cost would vary and depend upon the use of kind fuel, oil or LNG (liquefied natural gas).
The minister said that the power production from Nandipur, embroiled in a serious controversy, would begin within a month. He said the oil filtration plant of Nandipur was being replaced by December.
He said that the Chinese company that undertook the project would run it for three months during which international bids would be called to pick up a party to operate and maintain the plant. The plant would be shifted to the LNG.
Dagha said that at present the fuel mix comprises 38pc oil, 31pc hydel and 22pc gas. The dependence on oil is being gradually cut down and the use of coal is being enhanced as even the imported coal generates cheaper power.
Both the minister and the secretary were confident that the curse of loadshedding would disappear by the end of 2017 as there would be enough power by then.
Dagha said transmission lines and big transformers had been changed in most parts of Pakistan while work was going on for the remaining. He said recovery was minimal from Sindh and a great dispute was going on with the provincial government.
At present, he said, there were power cut-offs of six hours in urban areas and eight hours in the rural regions except where thefts were too high.
The secretary said the present installed power capacity, de-rated capacity and actual generation stood at 20,684 MW, 18,616 MW and 16,890 MW respectively.
About the highly demanding report of the Nepra (National Electric Power Regulatory Authority) that spoke about enormous over-billing, faulty meters and equipment and fake outages, the minister said the regulator should have discussed its findings with the ministry before going public. The secretary said that his ministry has written a letter to Nepra disputing its report.
To a question, Asif said that Wapda (Water & Power Development Authority) was working on the Kalabagh Dam and would come to the ministry with its proposal.
However, he made it clear that nothing would and could be imposed on the provinces and whatever would be done would be done with complete consensus and consultations. He said there was also need to pay attention to small dams for which potential exists.
The secretary elaborated the power projects under the game-changer China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) on which work was going on in full swing.
He listed the challenges that need to be addressed. They included line losses/ thefts; wrong billings; recoveries in Sindh and Balochistan and from the governments of Sindh and Azad Kashmir, and governance issues.