The dark ages: Water & power minister blasts finance ministry

Says energy crisis could be solved in 30 months approved amount is disbursed.

ISLAMABAD:

As Pakistan’s power crisis deepens, Minister for Water and Power Musadiq Malik has flatly accused the finance ministry of ‘reluctance’ in releasing the entire amount of funds approved by the prime minister to arrange fuel for power plants.

“Timely payments by the Ministry of Finance are the only solution to overcome the current power outages; however, the ministry is reluctant to release Rs22.5 billion approved by the prime minister,” Malik said, while addressing a press conference on Thursday.

“If I had been aware of how helpless I would be in the release of funds, I would never have accepted the responsibility of water and power minister,” he said, adding that the power production now stands at 10,400mw, while the power shortfall was 5,000mw.

He added that a meeting was held with finance ministry officials over its failure to release funds but they refused to disclose the reason behind the non-disbursement of the much-needed money.

“The finance ministry has released only Rs5 billion, which has been paid to PSO for LC payments,” he said. He said the water and power ministry was running Independent Power Plants (IPPs) from its own resources.

Malik said the power sector required immediate release of funds to provide relief to the masses, and added that there was no doubt that the energy crisis could be solved within 30 months, provided the funding was made available.

“We are not able to produce power because of scarcity of funds and we have to change our priorities to address the energy shortages in the country,” he said, adding that the government should give incentives to private investors for power projects. “If they are not facilitated, the government will have to invest on its own in this sector,” he added.

He said that the government would have to increase generation capacity to 20,000mw, and added that the sale price of power was at Rs9 per unit, despite the Rs13.94 per unit generation cost. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2013.