KCCI plans series of protests against KESC

End to prolonged power outages demanded.

KARACHI: After a meeting with seven industrial associations of Karachi, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), on Tuesday, announced a series of protests against Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC).

Talking to The Express Tribune KCCI President Mian Abrar Ahmed said that with the support of all seven major industrial associations of the city, KCCI has decided to protest against KESC’s 12-hour load shedding in the city.

“We also decided in the meeting that all our 17,000 members will not pay their electricity bills if KESC does not end the long power outages in the next three days,” Ahmed said. “Our member industries and traders will gather outside of Karachi Press Club at 5pm Wednesday (today) to protest,” he added.

“Actually, the KESC wants businessmen to pressurise the government on the issue of load shedding so that they can get cheap gas from Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC). But we will not do this; instead we would like the government to rein-in KESC,” said Ahmed.

KESC has enough installed power capacity but it does not produce power on furnace oil, he said. Although, they charge electricity bills as per their furnace oil production cost which is certainly much higher than gas, he added.

Industrialists want KESC to supply uninterrupted power to industries because they say that KESC gets subsidy from the government for this. They said the 12-hour load shedding has badly disturbed the industrial production of the city that generates over Rs7 billion in taxes in a single day.

KESC usually prefers its industrial consumers to the domestic because of the higher tariff rate that it gets from the thousands of industrial units of city.

SSGC is supplying around 120 millions cubic feet per day (mmcfd) gas to KESC, down 60 mmcfd, from the 180 mmcfd owing to the shortfall of gas in the current winter season.

KESC, on its part, claims that it cannot bear the expensive power production from furnace oil.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2011.