Govt still faces losses worth Rs1tr annually due to power outages: Asif

Power Minister denies that it will take 10 years to mitigate load-shedding. Defence institutes not power defaulters.

ISLAMABAD: Claiming that the duration of load-shedding had decreased in the country, minister for water and power and defence Khawaja Asif said on Friday that the government still faced losses worth Rs1 trillion annually owing to power outages.

"The government is committed to end energy crisis in the country," Asif claimed while speaking to the media outside the Parliament on Friday.

He said that the government was taking action against electricity thefts without any discrimination and claimed that line losses had decreased.

The power minister also disagreed with a statement from the International Monetary Fund that ending of load-shedding in the country will take ten more years.

Defence institutes not power defualters

Asif further proclaimed that none of the defence institutes of the country had outstanding bills.

The power and defence minister said that Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab had all promised to clear their outstanding power bills of Ministry of Water and Power by the end of June. However, he alleged that the Azad Kashmir and Sindh governments were not cooperating with the ministry to clear their outstanding dues.

To a question he said earlier closer of markets would save around 25MW electricity. He said provinces have been requested for the earliercloser of markets.

Construction of dams

Asif claimed that the government will construct Dasu dam from its own resources, while Rs25 billion has been released for the construction of Diamer-Bhasha dam.

Process of land acquisition is about to be completed and the government wants to complete the project from its own resources. However, he added, that some donor agencies had also expressed their interest to finance the project.