ISLAMABAD: Tempers flared in the National Assembly on Friday as PPP lawmakers fiercely criticized K-Electric and the federal government over the ongoing power crisis in Karachi. PPP members challenged the government, asserting they would resign if they failed to prove claims of 16 to 20 hours of daily power outages in the city. They accused the government of downplaying the crisis’s severity. The heated debate emerged amid reports of extensive power outages in several Karachi neighborhoods, including Korangi, Lyari, North Karachi, and Surjani, experiencing over 12 hours of load-shedding daily…
Read MoreMonth: June 2024
PM Office Intervenes on Oil Marketing Companies’ Plea for Rs26 Billion Exchange Rate Loss Recovery
ISLAMABAD: The Prime Minister’s Office has called the attention of the Petroleum Division to the mounting exchange rate loss of Rs26 billion faced by the oil industry, along with Rs65 billion in unrecovered sales tax, which is severely impacting cash flows. In a memorandum, the Prime Minister’s Office highlighted concerns raised by the Oil Marketing Association of Pakistan’s chairman regarding fund management issues plaguing emerging oil marketing companies (OMCs). These challenges include significant unrecovered exchange losses, resulting from flaws in the foreign exchange gain/loss recovery mechanism, and the inability to…
Read MorePunjab Launches Digital Registry to Combat Plastic Pollution
LAHORE: The Environment Protection and Climate Change Department (EPCCD) is developing a digital registry to map and monitor plastic bag production, as well as register all producers, distributors, collectors, and recycling units. This initiative is part of the Punjab government’s “No to Plastic” campaign. Punjab, the most populous province in Pakistan, accounts for over half of the country’s plastic consumption. Despite this, there has been a lack of data on the scale of plastic bag production, a source from the EPCCD told Dawn on Friday. According to WWF-Pakistan, the country…
Read MoreElectricity Tariff for Karachiites Increased by Rs3.23 for June-September
ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) announced on Friday an increase of up to Rs3.23 per unit in electricity rates for K-Electric consumers over the next four months (June to September) to address a nine-month backlog of fuel cost adjustments (FCA). K-Electric had requested a cumulative FCA of about Rs18.6 per unit for the three quarters from July 2023 to March 2024, aiming to collect up to Rs26 billion from consumers. Nepra provisionally approved about half of this request, distributing the adjustments to mitigate consumer burden. Consequently, consumers…
Read MorePM Highlights Huge Investment Potential in Alternative Energy Sector
Commits to Strengthening Pakistan’s Energy Infrastructure BEIJING: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reaffirmed his government’s commitment to bolstering the alternative energy system in Pakistan, emphasizing the vast investment opportunities within the sector during a meeting with the Chairman of Power China on Wednesday. The prime minister detailed his administration’s extensive efforts to combat power theft nationwide. The Power China chairman praised the swift and high-quality completion of the Sahiwal Coal Power Plant, referencing the terms “Pakistan Speed” and “Punjab Speed” to describe the rapid execution of development projects. During the meeting,…
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