Govt plans to offer reward for completing power, gas supply projects before polls

ECC will consider the reward proposal in its meeting on Monday

ISLAMABAD: As election year approaches, the government is planning to offer honorarium and reward to officers and staff dealing with new electricity and gas supply projects in the constituencies of parliamentarians of ruling and allied parties under the Prime Minister’s Global SDGs Achievement Programme.

The plan is meant to expedite and complete work on these schemes before polls in mid-2018.

“The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), which is scheduled to meet on coming Monday, will review the reward plan submitted by the Cabinet Division,” a senior government official said while talking to The Express Tribune.



Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has already given a free hand to the departments concerned by delegating powers for the approval of development schemes worth over Rs30 million each in the constituencies of parliamentarians.

Earlier, the cabinet had granted discretionary powers to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for giving the go-ahead to gas, power and infrastructure projects worth over Rs30 million each under the 2016-18 development programme.

Guidelines were also approved for the Rs100-billion development programme titled Prime Minister’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Achievement Programme.

Under the guidelines, the agencies concerned could take up schemes valuing at less than Rs30 million. However, those costing more would require the prime minister’s nod. But the Cabinet Division suggested that the process caused delay in the approval and implementation of development schemes.

Now, according to the government official, the cabinet has amended the guidelines, allowing the departments and agencies concerned to approve projects costing more than Rs30 million.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government has decided to re-launch the gas schemes initiated during the tenure of previous Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) administration and aims to complete them before 2018 elections.

In the case of electricity connection, the government has revised the minimum criterion - presence of 10 houses - for picking a locality. It has also removed the minimum cost bar following execution of work on several power projects as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).



With a gradual increase in power production, premier Abbasi has already announced that electricity load-shedding will come to an end in the current fiscal year as many power plants are heading towards completion.

According to sources, a steering committee tasked with implementing different schemes under the SDGs had recommended amendments to the approved guidelines. It suggested that the minimum cost for electricity supply schemes should be Rs100,000 instead of Rs500,000.

The guidelines also said savings should be surrendered immediately after the completion of schemes without waiting for the close of financial year. No new schemes will be entertained with the help of savings of the originally funded projects.

The ECC, in its Monday huddle, will also consider the proposal of gas allocation from Ayesha North and Aminah gas fields in Badin, a development plan for Sara and Sui fields and allocation of gas from the Shahdadpur field. It may also give the green light to a bailout package for Pakistan International Airlines and to the support price for wheat for 2017-18 crop year.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2017.

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