Pakistan needs enhanced generation of 13,000MWs by 2020

Chinese investors told country’s requirement to stretch to 31,757MWs by 2020 against installed capacity of 18,477MWs

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Monday informed Chinese investors that it needed over 13,000 megawatts of enhanced electricity till 2020 to meet its demand and in this regard it would provide one window operation to Chinese companies to make multibillion dollar investments.

“Wapda has estimated the country’s requirement to be stretched out to 31,757MW till 2020 against the existing installed capacity of 18,477MW so we need enhancing generation capacity by over 13000 MW in coming years,” Pakistan’s power sector managers told Chinese investors during the working session at the Pak-China Business Forum organized by the Ministry of Commerce here.

Pakistan’s public sector installed capacity through hydel stands at 7013MW, 5,458W thermal and 787MW nuclear. The IPPs’ installed capacity stands at 9,273MW. The total number of electricity consumers stand at 23.40 million.

There are 31 IPPs working in Pakistan with total investment of $7 billion. The existing deficit of power stands at over 6,000MW and there is need of huge investment in Pakistan.

They informed Chinese investors that under the power sector policy, those investing in power sector would be enjoying exemption from paying corporate income tax, turnover tax, withholding taxes and sales tax.

The investors will have to pay only 5 percent concessionary duty on imports. The government provides protection against political force majeure, change in law and imposition of taxes.

There will be opportunities for investment in transmission line projects on the basis of BOT for 25 years. There will be bidding for 5 to 6 LNG-based power plants of 1000MW which will have 200MW electricity generation capacity each in most of the cases. The Chinese investors raised certain serious issues during the working session.