Lights out

Installing meters at ‘free-lunch’ companies and government departments should help power companies recover costs.

A recent meeting of the National Assembly Special Committee on the Energy Crisis concluded that power companies were losing out on total revenue by 45 per cent due to delays in tariff notifications, lack of recovery of the fuel adjustment surcharges and transmission and distribution losses. To tackle the loss, officials said power meters would be installed to monitor usage at government departments. Additionally, free supply to Wapda will be discontinued due to it being misused. This is a welcome move by the committee as it supports a system of checks and balances.

Also at the meeting, one MNA pointed out that a factory owned by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s husband was a defaulter but continues to receive free power supply. Such cases should be brought to light and it should be explained why private businesses receive free supply when other citizens of the country continue to suffer power cuts and high electricity bills. Installing meters at these ‘free-lunch’ companies and government departments should help power companies recover costs. This should also alleviate power outages and the ‘kunda’ system in low-income neighbourhoods. While low-income neighbourhoods might not be able to afford regular electricity bills — hence resorting to paying suppliers bribes for continuous power supply — companies should offer such households subsidies rather than offering them to our well-off government officials. This can be implemented for households that fall below the poverty line.

Transforming the system into a more efficient one should be the task of power supply companies. However, the Committee should also focus on developing alternative power supply and support private engineers in commissioning research projects. The ‘mafia’ of Independent Power Producers monopolising the country needs to be controlled. Alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind, are being used across the world and Pakistan needs to catch up in these advancements.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2013.