Month: September 2020

KARACHI: The power sector regulatory authority has advised the government to give autonomy to all the nine state-owned distribution companies like Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) – which supply electricity to end-consumers – after their performance continued to deteriorate over the years. Performance of distribution companies throughout this period (FY15-19) does not meet the objectives of the power sector reforms. “The regulator observes that under the given scenario, the existing setup would not be able to deliver,” National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) said…

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Prime Minister Imran Khan recently said that Pakistan’s economy was on the right track since country’s current account balance recorded a surplus $424 million in July 2020. Pakistan has gone through this boom and bust cycles many times before: an import-driven boom, balance of payments crisis, International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, stabilisation, a period of growth and then back to a crisis. This time is no different. When the PTI government took over in August 2018, the current account deficit had grown to nearly 6 per cent of gross domestic product from…

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ISLAMABAD: Concerned over the poor performance of the power sector, the regulator has blamed the distribution companies (Discos) for overbilling consumers to cover up their inefficiencies and high system losses as the government struggles to put in place an improvement roadmap. In its “State of Industry Report 2019” cleared by the federal cabinet last week, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) warns that continuation of existing policy of loadshedding in ‘high loss’ areas stifles sales growth and increases energy costs. “Backtracking from the reform agenda and not following it…

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