FAISALABAD: National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) is trying to promote a competition base electricity market in Pakistan enabling consumers to purchase electricity from the company of their own choice, said Director Consumer’s Affairs Engineer Imtiaz Hussain Baloch. He was addressing a meeting of local industrialists and businessmen in Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) here today.
He said that the fundamental responsibilities of NEPRA is to issue license to power generating companies, fix the electricity tariff and implement NEPRA laws as a regulatory in addition to protecting the rights and interests of end consumers. He admitted that the price of electricity is high in Pakistan as compared to the other regional countries but its main cause is that we are producing maximum costly electricity in the basket of our energy mix. He said that after 1992 no major Hydel power plant was installed excluding an 84 mega watt Hydel unit which was established in private sector. He said that now efforts are being made to produce cheap electricity through coal fired power plants. He hoped that its impacts are expected to be passed on to the consumers after 2018.
Engineer Imtiaz Hussain Baloch also endorsed a proposal of holding tariff determination meetings regarding FESCO in Faisalabad and assured that next meeting in this respect will definitely be held in Faisalabad. He further told that a comprehensive procedure has been worked out to purchase surplus electricity from the private sector and under this arrangement any power producer could give surplus electricity at one point and receive it back from another point. Regarding net metering in Faisalabad, he said that the person being discouraged in this respect by FESCO could file their cases to NEPRA so that action could be taken against them accordingly.
Responding to a question about recovery of different taxes in electricity bills, Director Consumers Affairs NEPRA said that their role is restricted to the tariff determination whereas the issue of taxation falls within the purview of government. He asked President Engineer Muhammad Saeed Sheikh to create a special cell in FCCI to deal with NEPRA related issues so these could be speedily addressed.
Earlier in his address of welcome, president FCCI Engineer Muhammad Saeed Sheikh said that industry is imperative for the progress and prosperity of Pakistan while energy is prerequisite to keep the industrial wheel in motion. He thanked government for supplying electricity round the clock to the industrial sector but added that now its rates should be reduced in order to cut down the cost of doing business in Pakistan. He told that in Pakistan the electricity tariff is 14 cents while it is available at 9 cents in India and Sri Lanka. He said that NEPRA should play it role in reducing electricity tariff so that our exporters could compete with our regional competitors. Commenting on the role of FESCO, he said that its performance is excellent. “Similarly, its recovery is more than 100 percent while line losses are also minimum”, he said and added that despite of these plus points, tariffs rationalization charges are being recovered from the FESCO consumers which are not justified. He also demanded an awareness session on net metering for the power producers who have surplus electricity. He also demanded that NEPRA’s meetings for the tariff determination of FESCO should be held in Faisalabad so that the local industrialists as well as other consumers could fully participate in these meetings.
During question answer session Chaudhary Muhammad Nawaz, Haji Talib Hussain Rana, Mukhtar Ahmed and Secretary General Abid Masood raised interesting question while SVP Rana Sikandar Azam offered vote of thanks.
Later President FCCI Engineer Muhammad Saeed Sheikh presented FCCI memento to Engineer Imtiaz Hussain Baloch Director Consumers Affairs NEPRA.
