Government has released Rs6 billion to enable the generation companies to make timely payment to fuel oil suppliers to overcome the forced power outage of 3800 MW of hydel power output due to canal closure period.
An official source said Ministry of Water and Power (MOWP) had sought a release of Rs10 billion to maintain uninterrupted power supply during the last week of December till January end. While it has estimated another Rs10 billion for fuel oil supplies in February. Since the release got delayed during the last few days hydel power generation declined significantly that resulted in massive load shedding. Finance ministry has assured the provision of additional amount in next weeks. MOWP had earlier informed government that power shortage would suddenly increase in end of December with the implementation of canal closure for annual de-silting operations. Government was informed that 3800 MW hydel generation output would not be available during January and it would remain low in the subsequent month of February.
The major worry for government is expensive power generation, the impact of which would be completely passed on to consumers, which the source said could create some political convulsions. Fuel oil prices have increased over Rs70,000 per tonne as compared to Rs34,000 per tonne a year back. Government estimates a loss of Rs71 billion during the July-December period of current fiscal year due to the non passing of impact in fuel oil prices to consumers. Distribution companies (DISCOs) managed to collect Rs5 billion in fuel price adjustment as compared to the estimated target of Rs22 billion for the month of June and July.
