Gohar Ejaz slams govt over high electricity capacity charges

Former caretaker federal minister Dr Gohar Ejaz has criticised the government for imposing excessive capacity charges on electricity consumers. He pointed out that while electricity consumption has remained unchanged since 2015, consumers are now paying ten times more in capacity charges.

In a statement made on social media platform X on Wednesday, Ejaz highlighted the inefficiencies in the energy sector, which are being misrepresented as reforms. He noted that in 2015, the country had a production capacity of 20,000 megawatts, with an average consumption of 13,000 megawatts and capacity charges amounting to Rs200 billion.

Despite the installation capacity increasing to 43,400 megawatts, consumption has remained at 13,000 megawatts. However, capacity charges have surged to Rs2 trillion. He criticised the government for compelling consumers to pay significantly higher capacity charges for the same amount of electricity used.

He further highlighted that independent power producer (IPP) plants are being paid Rs2 trillion for partial or zero electricity production. He questioned the sustainability of the country under such IPP agreements and called for urgent reforms to address these issues.