Karachi getting cheapest electricity in the country: Omar Ayub

Federal Minister for Power, Petroleum and Natural Resources Omar Ayub on Wednesday said that electricity supplied to the citizens of Karachi is cheapest in the country.

During a National Assembly (NA) session chaired by Speaker Asad Qaiser, Minister Ayub said that the tariff of K-Electric (K-E) is Rs3.5 less than the national tariff of Pakistan.

He added that “we have to rationalize this tariff while the member of Sindh [parliament] in K Electric has recommended reducing its fines.”

While responding to question, the power minister said that K-E has been asked to build a 500kV grid.

 “We are supplying 850 MW of electricity from the national grid. K Electric did not order oil on time but we provided facilities to them,” he said.

The minister quoted National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) saying that K-E did not make any investment in the grid system whereas no one has worked on it in previous years.

“Our focus is to provide transformers in rural and urban areas,” he said. “K Electric's LNG plant will come next year which will bring improvement.”

Minister Ayub also congratulated National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) that yesterday,  23,300 MW of electricity was transferred through the transmission line, which is the highest in the history.

Later, Speaker Qaiser directed the power minister to make the feasibility of improving the system all over Pakistan.