‘Government will unveil power sector reform plan in three weeks’

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan said on Monday that the government would announce full details of the savings in power generation cost through ongoing review of energy contracts in about three weeks, a national daily reported.

Speaking at a press conference, the minister said that with circular debt estimated to go beyond Rs 2.7 trillion by end of current fiscal year, the government would unveil a detailed reform plan for the power sector including the expected reduction in cost of generation through revised agreements with power producers, improvement in transmission and distribution system. He informed that the working and assessments were in progress, adding that no previous government ever tried to review power sector problems to resolve them.

He said that most of the agreements with Independent Power Plants (IPPs) under 1994, 2002 and wind power plants of 2006 had been reviewed and its detailed computations and savings would be made available as well, along with similar revisions in the power projects owned by the government.

He said that the plan would address the flow in circular debt that had gone beyond Rs 2.2 trillion, and that the government would show performance in sectors of economy to improve transmission and distribution system to ensure competitive tariffs to the industry and agriculture to help them stand on their own feet.