Pakistan Today

Govt forms 3-member committee on energy crisis

The caretaker government has formed a three-member committee to look into the energy crisis and has also announced a short-term strategy to reduce electricity shortage across the country.

Announcement to this effect was made by the Adviser to the prime minister on finance, Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, at a joint press conference at the Ministry of Finance on Friday.

He was flanked by Minister for Water and Power Dr Musadik Malik, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Sohail Wajahat H Siddiqui, Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood and senior officials of the ministries.

Chaudhry categorically said the caretaker government would implement its short-term energy policy without increasing the power tariff and would put no financial burden on the people in the country.

He said the country was currently generating 9,200MW of electricity against the demand of 13,800MW to 14,000MW, adding that there was an electricity shortage of 4,000MW across the country and people were facing load shedding of up to 12 hours a day which was a matter of concern for the caretaker government.

He said the government could increase the power generation capacity to 2900MW and bring it into the system through adopting short-term measures.

He said to facilitate and support the power generation companies, the Ministry of Finance had released Rs 10 billion, adding that Rs 20 billion would be released shortly while Rs 35 billion would be released the next month.

He said under the short-term strategy, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources would provide 150-200MMCFD to the power generation companies in order to ensure gas supply to power generation companies for generating of more electricity in the country.

The adviser said representatives of all provinces would be stationed in the National Power Centers across the country to oversee how much electricity was generated by each power station.

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