Is solar power the right choice for Pakistan?

KARACHI: Pakistan has achieved surplus power production and projects in the pipeline will be more than sufficient to meet future demand. Therefore, authorities may divert the investment allocated to solar power projects to the transmission and distribution infrastructure. “Pakistan’s power production has become surplus. However, the country is still facing hours-long outages due to the crippling transmission and distribution network,” remarked an industry official on condition of anonymity. “The government should ask investors to invest in the transmission and distribution network instead of solar power projects whose efficiency level is…

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Kick-starting economy a challenge for Pakistan

Pakistan’s economy has passed through a rough patch in the outgoing fiscal year. Some media commentators and analysts are of the view that there are early signs of recovery in the economy. There is a lot of noise about the accountability drive and the government has been pressurising the mainstream political parties on and off. On the economic front, the government is under immense pressure to deal with high unemployment and inflation rates. The government has already fulfilled certain conditions to resume the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of the International…

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Euro-V fuel to help reduce pollution in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan is keen on addressing the challenges related to climate change and the introduction of Euro-V standard fuel in a short span of time shows the government’s commitment to reduce air pollution for a clean environment, said Petroleum Minister Omar Ayub Khan. At an event organised by Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to mark the upgrading of Pakistan’s fuel standard to Euro-V, the minister termed it the need of the hour to adopt upgraded fuel standards that would reduce the negative impact on environment and help the…

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Pakistan reduces profit margins of IPPs

KARACHI: The government has achieved a major breakthrough by reducing the price of electricity for end-consumers as power producers have agreed in principle to limit their profit margins and will no more be entitled to capacity payments in case power generation is not needed in future. In case the independent power producers (IPPs) earn a higher profit than the one agreed with the government, then they will share the maximum proportion of the additional profit with the state. The government has ended the award of profit in US dollars to…

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‘Pakistan should benefit from emergency trade relaxations’

KARACHI: The country should take full benefit of the relaxations under arrangement of special and emergency clauses allowed by the global trading system under World Trade Organisation, said Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry Vice President Sheikh Sultan Rehman. Speaking at a webinar on “Covid-19: Trade and Trade Related Measures”, he said that the trade and trade facilitated allowances should also be capitalised for making appropriate pressure on public sector to structure the temporary policies towards the gain economy in the present crisis generated by declining world trade…

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