Parliamentarians argue over Pakistan's 'highest power tariff in the region'

Telecom industry is facing continuous loss and its loss has reached up to Rs 4billion, says minister.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has a higher electricity tariff than India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, it was revealed in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

In response to a question raised by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA Nafeesa Inayatullah Khattak, the ministry of water and power submitted a written reply, noting Pakistan had the highest electricity tariff in the region with most of the demand for electricity in the country met through thermal power generation.

The lower house of the parliament was informed that in Pakistan, the tariff was based on the generation mix, cost structure and T&D losses of each utility company.

The statement said that the electricity demand is mostly being met through thermal generation on Residual Furnace Oil (RFO), High Speed Diesel (HSD) and gas, as the hydel power generation, which is the cheapest source of electricity, is not enough to meet demand.

The dependency on RFO and HSD has lead to significant increase in power tariff, the house was informed.

It was revealed that RFO price was Rs20,604 per metric tonne (MT) in FY2006-07 that has increased to Rs72,134 per MT in FY 2013-14.

According to the NEPRA projected power generation for FY2014 energy share of Hydel was 34 per cent, RFO 35 per cent and gas 23 percent.

The projected power generation for FY2014 in terms of Unit Energy cost without capacity charges is Rs0.08/kWh, Rs18.25/kWh and Rs5.58/kWh respectively.

The house was informed that the government has launched national CFL project to replace 30 million CFLs (energy savers) among the non-defaulter domestic consumers in exchange of two healthy incandescent bulbs free of cost for conservation of energy which shall reduce 1000 megawatt power demand from national grid. Out of 30 million CFLs, 18 million CFLs have already been distributed by DISCOs.

Industrial growth rate

Parliamentary Secretary for Industries and Production Rao Ajmal Khan informed the house that growth rate of industrial sector has increased by 1.91 per cent during the first six month of PML-N government.

It was revealed that during the financial year Jul-June 2012-13 growth rate of industrial sector was 3.49 per cent, while during the period July-December 2013 has increased risen 5.4 per cent.

He also said that the ministry plans to open 1,000 more utility stores across the country to facilitate the general public. The quality of commodities being sold at utility stores has improved, he said, adding that annual turn over of the Utility Stores corporation is close to Rs80 billion.

Telecom liabilities reached Rs4 billion

Minister of state for information technology and telecom Anusha Rahman informed the house that telecom industry of the country is continuously facing loss and its liabilities has reached upto Rs 4billion.

A top official of one of the leading cellular companies told The Express Tribune that power outage is one of the reasons due to which many existing telcos did not choose to acquire spectrum of 4G services in recently held spectrum auction.

Zong, a subsidiary of China mobile, was the sole operator that had bid and won a 10 MHZ spectrum of 4G during the auction.

Gwadar Port development

During the NA session, minister for ports and shipping Kamran Michael informed the house that a high level committee has been constituted to acquire land for Gwadar Port.

He said that a number of projects have been completed hundred percent on the port under phase 1.

The completed projects include three multipurpose berths, each 200 meter long and dredged 14.5 meter alongside, one hundred meter service berth, one RO-RO berth, 4.7 kilometer long approach channel, dredged to 14.4 meter, turning basin 450 meter dia, dredged to 13.8 meter and port related allied structures like control tower, said Michael.

CII recommendations

Answering a question the assembly, the federal minister for religious affairs Sardar Muhammad Yusouf said that recommendations of Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) would be implemented after discussion in the parliament.