Electricity price hike slammed

KARACHI: The Employers’ Federation Pakistan (EFP) has expressed concern on the recent hike in the electricity charges by Rs1.9/unit, a statement said on Friday.

EFP President Ismail Suttar expressed the hope that the steady withdrawal of gas supply to industrial units amid an ongoing six months’ grace period of energy subsidies announced by the prime minister in November are of the same plan, as resuscitation of industries is contingent on these crucial steps, it added.

“The Economic Council of EFP since last year, has been constantly advocating for forensic auditing of the IPPs with whom past governments had signed expensive power purchase agreements that had resulted in costly repayments of capacity charges in the dollar terms,” he added.

Instead of a single-buyer model, the council suggested a competitive power purchasing electricity market should be developed to create an alternative source of funds for revamping the distribution structure that does not allow the full transmission of the 18,500MW required by the country. In such a market, large quantities of energy are sold to DISCOs at independent system units established in each province. The DISCOs act as ‘retailers’ for buyers.