Businessmen have urged the government to abolish the Time of Use (ToU) metering on electricity bills as general consumers have to pay high rates of electricity during the peak hours due to the prevalence of the metering system in the country.
Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that the ToU metering was introduced in Pakistan at a time when the country was facing great shortage of electricity and this system was enforced to discourage the use of electricity.
However, he said that now Pakistan is producing surplus electricity as according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2019-20, the installed generation capacity of the country has exceeded 36,000MW while the maximum utilisation of electricity in peak season was around 23,000-25,000 MW. He was of the view that there was no justification to continue with the ToU metering.
Talking about the ballooning circular debt, the ICCI president said that one of the best options to cope with the issue was to encourage the maximum utilisation of installed capacity of the electricity for which abolishing ToU metering was very important.
He said that the common man was currently suffering due to the high inflation and doing away with ToU metering would bring down inflation and provide crucial relief to the common man. He said that the government should also bring down gas tariffs that would be helpful in promoting business activities.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 8th, 2020.
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