Islamabad’s businessmen criticise hike in power tariff

Ask government to find a permanent solution instead of raising tariffs.

ISLAMABAD: The federal capital’s business community has criticised a proposed increase in the power tariff, after the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) allowed an increase in power rates for Islamabad’s consumers. 

According to a press statement issued by the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Saeed Ahmed Bhatti, acting president of the ICCI, said the proposed increase will add to the woes of the public, as they are already burdened by the price hike in petroleum products.

He said the caretaker government should not approve the price increase and save businessmen and the general public from further trouble. Bhatti said that power tariff in Pakistan was already the highest in the region; thus, there was no justification to increase it further.

He said that during the last two years, the government made frequent hikes in the tariff, which has shattered the confidence of businessmen and investors in the economy. He was of the view that consistency in the power tariff was a key requirement in making long-term business expansion plans. Frequent increases in tariff were affecting investment and destabilising the economy, he said.

He was of the view that the government should focus on bringing more efficiency in operations of the power transmission and distribution companies instead of increasing electricity rates, because the prevalent inefficiency of these companies had touched 29% and was causing billions of rupees of losses to the national exchequer.

He urged the interim government to take concrete steps to check line losses, rather than increasing electricity rates.

He said that the solution to the ongoing power crisis was the construction of small water reservoirs and dams, as well as tapping the coal potential of the country, as the cost of producing per unit electricity from hydel was around Rs3, Rs6 from gas, as against Rs16.5 from furnace oil.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2013.

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