Month: June 2021

WORLD Environment Day today has kick-started a decade of ecosystem restoration. As a global host for World Environment Day, 2021, it is an important opportunity for Pakistan to revisit environmental priorities that it has followed for the last 50 years and reset the direction for the decade ahead. The 1972 Stockholm Declaration inspired Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to begin Pakistan’s environmental journey. The Declaration laid down the principle that the earth’s carrying capacity must be protected. Within two years, the Environment and Urban Affairs Division was established. Instead of focusing on…

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The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) intends to enhance the renewable energy footprint to 30 per cent over the next 10 years from the current 3pc of Pakistan’s overall generation capacity of over 35,000MW, Nepra Chairman Tauseef H. Farooqi said on Friday. Addressing a live webinar on “Pakistan’s Energy Transition and the Road Ahead” hosted by K-Electric and Nepra, he said the current share of hydropower at 30pc should be included in the renewable energy mix which would enable Pakistan’s total progress in the renewable energy space to exceed…

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ISLAMABAD: The government on Friday completed Rs89.2 billion transactions as the first instalment of payments to 20 independent power producers (IPPSs) from the Rs403bn committed under a settlement agreement with 46 IPPs signed in February. Payment to other IPPs suffered delay as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had decided to examine the deal. “The government has completed the first payment transaction of 40pc to 20 IPPs amounting to Rs89.2bn equally divided in cash, five years’ Sukuk and 10 years’ Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs),” the Ministry of Finance said, adding the…

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The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Friday allowed K-Electric to charge an additional fuel cost adjustment (FCA) of average 26 paisa and 10 paisa per unit in June and July, respectively from its consumers to add about Rs500 million to its revenue. The regulator has worked out the increase in rates on the basis of seven months (June to December 2020) of FCA and adjusting monthly increases and reductions in a manner that minimize the price shock to consumers. The regulator had held the public hearing for the…

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The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has recommended to the government to eliminate gas subsidies to ward off formation of circular debt and encourage greater participation of the private sector in LNG trade to develop an efficient LNG market to cope with the growing gas shortages in the country. In a special section on LNG sector inserted in its quarterly report on the state of the economy, the central bank pointed out that the procedural bottlenecks causing delay at the import, transmission and distribution stages not only lead to recurring…

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