Month: July 2020

ISLAMABAD: Raising objections over the long-term power plan, the Private Power & Infrastructure Board (PPIB) has advocated an end to LNG-based projects in future, proposing their replacement with hydropower and bulk induction of plants based on local coal with an additional Chinese investment. In its comments over the 27-year Integrated Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP 2020-47), the PPIB has argued that coal-based power projects, particularly those on Thar coal, were being developed through Chinese financing as international multilateral financing agencies were reluctant to finance such base load power projects. “Therefore,…

Read More

ISLAMABAD: In Pakistan, we have an entrenched cross-subsidy system, implemented through a cascaded tariff. It operates both in electricity and gas tariffs. There are on average five to six slabs in the residential tariff. Low consumption consumers pay a lower tariff and high energy consumers bear a higher tariff. For example, in case of electricity, the small consumer consuming 50-100 units pays around Rs5 per unit and a large consumer may pay as much as Rs20. Similarly, the small gas consumer may have to pay as low as Rs500 per…

Read More

ISLAMABAD: The political economy influences decision-making, which undermines the performance of economy and results in politicising of the economic priorities. Although all sectors of the economy are bearing the brunt of this situation, the energy sector has been impacted the most. The story of politicising the energy sector started after a World Bank report in the 1960s, which emphasised the need for building dams including the Kalabagh dam well before the end of 1990s. It was deemed necessary to meet water and energy needs of the country. Regrettably, Pakistan did…

Read More