Energy austerity

The government is going ahead with a host of energy-saving austerity measures, including restoring the two-day weekend in government offices and ordering markets to close by 8:30pm. The moves are expected to help reduce expenditure related to power generation while also freeing up some generation capacity to help ease pressure on the power grid and reduce load-shedding to less than four hours a day by the end of next week and two hours a day by the beginning of next month. The government has also slashed the fuel quotas for government employees and ministers by 40%. Other new power and fuel-saving measures include requiring government meetings to be held virtually whenever possible; barring ‘unnecessary’ foreign tours by government officials; banning lunches, dinners, and other meal events at government offices; and restricting government purchasing of new vehicles.

It is worth noting that all provinces except K-P — where the PTI is in power — appear to be on board with the new plans, though they have asked for a few days to debate them with local traders and other stakeholders. The changes are not set in stone, as the government plans to gauge their effectiveness in its next meeting before deciding on whether or not to extend them. Still being debated are measures to encourage work-from-home at public and private offices where possible, and further amending the workweek by adding an hour a day to the first four days of the week.

While most of the changes make sense and are easily manageable without creating significant headaches for the public, the reduction in market hours seems unworkable for the government and unacceptable for traders and citizens alike. For the government, enforcement will create an unnecessary drain on resources and can probably not be across the board since several types of retailers — pharmacies, petrol pumps and convenience stores — need to stay open for extended hours due to their very nature. Meanwhile, encouraging markets to open earlier could be counterproductive, as most people go to markets after their office hours, meaning that shops will likely be open but empty, essentially wasting electricity.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2022.

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