Power pressures

The ability of people to earn enough to pay their bills is being affected as thousands sit idle due to 'loadshedding.'

Under a plan drawn up by the international financial institutions to which Pakistan is bound, power tariff will continue to rise under a ten-year plan, as the entire cost of generation is passed on to end consumers. The water and power minister, accepting the plan, has said there were really no options available. Consumers, reeling under raises in their bills over the past two years, will be slapped with a further 15 per cent increase over the current fiscal year. This figure could double if demands from the World Bank and IMF, that distribution efficiency be increased, are not met. The dissolution of the Pakistan Electric Power Company, said to be responsible for massive losses, is intended as a first step towards this. The situation can only be imagined if increases of up to 30 per cent become necessary. Many are already pouring a huge percentage of earnings into the payment of utility bills that threaten to outstrip pay checks. They simply cannot give more.

The bad news coincides with a new crisis in power supply — attributed to a lack of oil supply to rental power plants. A shortfall of 3,600 MW has been reported. Lahore has been facing eight hours or more of ‘loadshedding’. In some localities and in smaller towns the cuts extend to 12 hours. Even the ability of people to earn enough to pay their bills is being affected, as tailors, electricians, welders and thousands of others sit idle.

The power plan is to be backed by new laws that make it possible to recover bills even from reluctant consumers. But the government should be warned there is a limit to how far coercive measures can take it. When pressed to a point where no options are available, people will rebel. We have seen power riots in the past. There could be a repetition of such violence and this will only add to the sense of crisis that we already face. The situation of citizens needs to be looked at more sympathetically by the government and some means found to ease the troubles they face.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2010.