Category: News & Announcement

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to secure the remaining installments of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) US$6 billion bailout package, the government has started work on a plan to empower the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to directly pass on gas price increases to consumers. The proposed plan is to be discussed in a cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday (today) with the prime minister in the chair. Presently, OGRA decides on the revision in gas prices bi-annually, in January and July. The government cross subsidizes the gas prices and passes on…

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“The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019 to John B Goodenough, M Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yashino for the development of lithium-ion batteries,” read a press release issued by nobelprize.org a few weeks ago. These batteries, the release says, have the potential to create a fossil fuel-free society. A few weeks later, our federal minister for science and technology announced that a major Chinese battery maker would set up a lithium battery manufacturing facility in Pakistan. While further details are awaited,…

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ISLAMABAD: The government has notified an increase of 11 paisa per unit in electricity prices in a bid to apply a uniform tariff to all categories of consumers, except for domestic consumers. The tariff increase has been notified on account of periodic tariff adjustment for the first-quarter (Jul-Sept) of fiscal year 2019-20, as determined and recommended by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra). Earlier, the power-sector regulator had decided to transfer the burden of Rs14.780 billion on to consumers on account of power purchase price adjustment for the first…

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KARACHI: Investors in the Jhimpir Wind Corridor are alarmed as their projects have now suffered an unprecedented shutdown of six consecutive days since the federal government halted all offtake from their wind farms. “We had been seeing depressed offtake for almost two months now,” a leading investor in the project who did not wish to be identified by name tells Dawn. He says they saw between zero and 10MW evacuated on certain days over the last few months. “But now the situation has turned alarming since we have seen six days…

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Federal Minster for Energy Omer Ayub Khan on Tuesday informed the National Assembly that the government was trying hard to provide less expensive electricity to consumers by further improving the system. He said the government will be producing 70 to 80 per cent electricity by 2030 with their own resources which would contribute to overall development of the country. On calling attention notice, MNA Junaid Akbar said the government was charging fuel surcharge in electricity bill from the people of Malakand region despite generation of electricity through their four powerhouses.…

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