Senate session: Govt subsidies to PESCO failed to arrest line losses

Despite subsidies worth Rs53b, average line loss remained at 36% over three years.

ISLAMABAD: The government has paid subsidies worth Rs53 billion to the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) in the past three years but the company has had an average line loss of 36 per cent.

These statistics were presented before the Senate on Tuesday.

In a written reply to a question, Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf told the house that during 2007-08, the government had provided a subsidy of Rs21.9 billion to Pesco while line losses stood at 36.1 per cent. In 2008-09, subsidies worth Rs15.39 billion were given but line losses increased to 37.3 per cent. During 2009-10, the government pumped Rs17.1 billion as subsidy but line losses remained at 37 per cent.

When some members tried to grill Ashraf on the issue, a member from the Awami National Party (ANP) from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa accused them of making it into an ethnic issue and said that law and order in his province should be kept in mind before making any judgments on the power theft trend in the province.

Hajj arrangements

Religious Affairs Minister Khurshid Ahmed Shah said that keeping in view the difficulties faced by Hajj pilgrims last year, the government has decided to finalise all Hajj arrangements by April this year. Hajj applications will be received from April 10.

“The Saudi government has also been requested to allocate a special terminal for Pakistani flights at Jeddah airport to facilitate pilgrims,” he said.

Energy crisis

Adviser to the prime minister Ghazanfar Ali Gul told the house that Chashma Nuclear Power Project Phase-II will be complete by September.

Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Naveed Qamar said that reportedly, there are vast deposits of gold and silver in various parts of Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. However, their quantity has not yet been determined except for Saindak and Reko Diq in Balochistan, which have 1,339 tons of gold and over 70 tons of silver.

He said that so far, 7.8 tons of gold has been explored from these mines.

Ashraf said that they are acquiring land for which the federal government has provided one billion rupees. Overall, 13,000 acres of land will be acquired for this project. He said that inner roads and necessary bridges are also being constructed and the project is receiving funding from the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, a Japanese bank and the United States Agency for International Development.

Responding to a question, he said that eight hydropower projects will be completed next year by the public sector.  “The feasibility study of fourteen wind-power generation projects has also been completed,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2011.