There has been a serious lack of realism by the federal government to tackle the energy crisis. The government, having a monopoly on distribution of electricity, has been continuously increasing the tariff of electricity at regular intervals, while its power generation capacity is not fully utilised due to the failure of government to settle the issue of circular debt.
The power distribution companies have failed to control theft, line losses, corruption and recovery of dues from the government departments and defaulters. Due to mismanagement and corruption in the power generation companies owned by the government, the employees of these companies are resisting the privatisation of these companies.
The government has fallen to the strategy of increasing the prices of electricity and collecting more taxes from the helpless consumers. The government has also failed to set up Thar coal-based power plants. The government has to take drastic reforms to solve the energy crisis.
The government must encourage private sector to share the burden of producing and distributing the electricity. The government should give incentive to the industrial estates and large residential societies to set up power plants.
The Competition Commission of Pakistan should take the issue of monopoly of government in distribution of electricity, which infringes the basic rights of the consumers. What is the use of CCP if it cannot protect the rights of consumers?
S T HUSSAIN
Lahore
