The woes of the people finally end, albeit for the time being, as Federal Minister for Water and Power Naveed Qamar on Monday made a startling announcement that there would be no power load shedding in the country from today (Tuesday). Though the parliamentarians welcomed the statement with both a sigh of relief and astonishment, the government would have to apply financial management and political will to materialise the “dream” the nation has been waiting for so long. To a supplementary question during Question Hour, the minister announced that there would be no power outages in the country from February 7.
“Line losses have been decreased reasonably due to which load shedding will be ended from Tuesday,” he announced. Qamar said the capacity of the power plants had been enhanced to tackle the current energy crisis, adding that electricity prices were being made reasonable and the system of recovery was also being improved. He said tariff had been re-nationalised and the government was implementing many recommendations of the Integrated Energy Sector Recovery Report and Plan. The minister said based on the report, key issues of sector were identified and sectoral reforms recommended thereof were being implemented. To another question about the volume and cost of the line losses and inefficiency in not recovering electricity dues, Qamar said there was 17,415 million KWh of volume loss valued at an average of Rs 137 billion in 2008-09, 20.9 percent loss, 18,194 million KWh of volume loss valued at an average rate of Rs 164 billion in 2009-10 while 18,735 million KWh of volume loss valued at an average rate Rs 172 billion in 2010-11. He said the average recovery of electricity bills was 97 percent in 2008-09, 105 percent in 2009-10 and 90 percent in 2010-11. The minister said currently the Fuel Price Adjustment (FPA) was being made on a monthly basis, wherein actual variation was passed on to the user of electricity for each relevant month. “No new additional fuel adjustment surcharge has been introduced,” he added. Separately, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the House that “enemy hand is involved in Balochistan to destabilise the country”, urging that the killing of 60 personnel of FC in the last 30 days should also be condemned. “The personnel of FC are protecting us and their killing should be condemned in the strongest terms”, Malik said when he spoke about the killing of wife and daughter of MPA Mir Bakhtiar Domki. He said an enquiry into the incident had been initiated. However, after the suo motu notice of the Supreme Court, the progress had come to a standstill. To a calling-attention notice, State Minister for Production Khawja Shiraz told the House that the total public debt of the government was still within the limits and had not crossed the benchmark set in Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act 2005.
No load shedding from today!
