- Kh Asif says ministry faces resistance for cheaper sources of electricity like coal, gas and wind
Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Monday told the Senate that ‘oil mafia’ in the country does not want to replace oil fuel with cheaper sources of electricity like coal, gas and wind.
In response to an adjournment motion moved by Senator Shahi Syed, the minister said, “The country imports $16 billion oil and those who have great interest in it would not let power generation through other resources.”
The motion pertained to a NEPRA report for the year 2014-15 wherein it was revealed that the efficiency of the Ministry of Water and Power was very poor and 70 per cent of the consumers were being billed erroneously.
According to Khawaja Asif, in India 78 per cent of electricity is being produced from coal and in the US 40 per cent while not a single megawatt of electricity is being produced from coal in Pakistan since “the ministry is facing resistance”.
The minister said unfortunately the power generation plants in the public sector were very costly and the government ran them in case of emergency and just to meet the peak hours’ demand.
He further said that some of these plants had been shut down as they were very costly and if these plants were run, the cost of electricity had been more costly.
About the long-hours load-shedding and inflated billing in Balochistan, the minister said the QESCO had less than 20 per cent of recovery due to the poor law and order.
He said that after laying of two transmission lines in Balochistan the electricity system had improved while after easing of international sanctions on Iran, electricity from there would also be imported.
The minister said payment with the IPPs and other organisations supplying oil to the WAPDA had been improved, and just the PSO had some backlog. He further said that there was no increase in the circular debt since October 2014 and it had been caped.