In return for greater control of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority under an amended Nepra law, the federal government has decided to allow provinces to generate, transmit and distribute electricity.
The agreement was reached at a meeting chaired by Water and Power Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif and attended by chief ministers of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and chief secretaries of Punjab and Balochistan.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah while talking to the media sources said that as per the Article 157 of the Constitution, the provinces had the authority to set up electricity generating units, transmission lines and distribution systems and to determine tariff for distribution of power within their territory, however, this could not be “translated in the Nepra act”, he said.
He said he had told the meeting members that the provinces should be granted this right while the federal government was amending the act. “Our demand was that the Constitution be followed in the matter… Now the [federal] minister has agreed to this. I am thankful to the other provinces and the minister as they all have agreed,” he said.
Shah highlighted that the purpose of the meeting was to draw consensus from all the stakeholders in order to overcome the power crisis. He informed that in some parts of Sindh, people had to put up with as many as 20 hours of load shedding.
Shah also stated that the tariff for bagasse-based and other captive power plants was another issue since these can be utilised to reduce load shedding by four to five hours. However,“we do not have the said powers, we cannot utilise them, added Shah.
The power minister assured that amendments to the Nepra act had been finalised after taking into consideration the viewpoints of the provinces. Ending load shedding requires collaborative effort since the crisis is affecting the entire country, he said. He was hopeful that the problem would be resolved by the end of the year, he added.
As per an official, the minister directed the authorities to finalise the tariff for bagasse-based projects within a month and ensure that the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company facilitated the purchase of electricity from such plants. He went on to say that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s chief minister (CM) did not agree with the arrangement that the centre be granted powers to impose surcharges as per the proposed changes in the Nepra law. The CM was of the view that this should be done by the Council for Common Interests.
