Islamabad: The Senate committee has asked the Power Division for details of power recovery, theft, and losses, saying that independent power plants (IPPs) and government-owned power plants have committed blind corruption, action should be taken against them.
The meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Energy was held under the chairmanship of Chairman Senate Shafqat Abbasi.
The chairman of the committee asked what the people want to know about the reasons for the increase in electricity bills.
The energy ministry officials replied that in 2013, capacity charges were Rs 185 billion, in 2019 they increased to Rs 642 billion, in 2021 to Rs 796 billion, in 2022 to Rs 971 billion, in 2023 to Rs 1.3 trillion, and the estimate for 2024 is Rs 2,010 billion.
Barha Mandtangi said that people are burning bills, who is responsible, protests are going on from Khyber to Karachi, the situation is bad and is heading towards civil disobedience, the country is becoming weak.
Members of the committee said that the public is bearing the brunt of theft, line losses, and defaulters.
The committee asked the Power Division for details of power recovery, theft, and losses on a distribution-wise basis, saying that the IPP agreements have drowned the people, the IPPs have over-invoiced the investment amount, there should be an inquiry into this, our children are paying off the IPPs' debts.
They said that the cost of projects installed in 2009 was how much 2 billion dollars, the power division was asleep, approved without seeing the estimate, we will expose this corruption, we will conduct an inquiry, the IPPs have committed blind corruption, action should be taken against them.
Summary
The Senate Standing Committee on Energy held a meeting to discuss the rising cost of electricity in Pakistan. The committee expressed concern over the situation, which they said is leading to civil disobedience.
The committee asked the Power Division for details of power recovery, theft, and losses. They also said that the IPP agreements have been a burden on the people and that the IPPs have committed corruption.
The committee demanded that action be taken against the IPPs and that the government investigate the matter.
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