Category: Shortcode

Pakistan’s oil and eatable import bill surged by 59.98 per cent to $21.87 billion in the July-March period compared to $13.67bn in the corresponding period last year owing to higher international prices and massive depreciation of the rupee. The country’s overall import bill increased by 49.10pc to $58.87bn in 9MFY22 against $39.48bn in the corresponding period last year. The share of these products in total import bill also rose to 37.14pc in 9MFY22. The steady increase in import bill of these two sectors are triggering trade deficit and pose a…

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National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) summoned heads of 27 closed power plants on Friday, where the power firms said Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) hadn’t issued funds on time, causing fuel shortage and no money for repairing the plants. The regulator called upon the power plants’ chief after PM Shehbaz Sharif took notice of unscheduled power outages across the country. Around 27 power plants with an installed capacity of 7140MW are reportedly under forced outages on fuel shortages or technical faults. NEPRA had also summoned CPPA and National Power…

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PRIME MINISTER Shehbaz Sharif must have felt stuck between a rock and a hard place after Ogra recommended a massive increase in the prices of petroleum products for recovering the full import cost and exchange rate losses from consumers. According to the estimates of the oil and gas regulator, the government is required to raise petrol prices by Rs21.30 a litre and diesel by above Rs83 a litre in order to recover the full costs from today. In case it also wants to recover the sales tax and the petroleum…

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The Power Division on Thursday informed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that there was currently no shortage of electricity in the country and power plants were closed because they either did not have fuel or faced technical difficulties. The Power Division blamed the “incompetence” of the previous PTI regime for the problems faced by the sector. PM Shehbaz was further informed that 18 power plants in the country were not functioning for the last one year because of being closed or having developed technical faults. The Power Division added that these…

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The Lahore Electric Supply Company’s demand and supply stood around 4,300MW and 3,760MW (on an average), respectively, creating a shortfall of around 550MW and forcing the company to observe loadshedding of two to four hours in urban and about eight hours in rural areas. “On Saturday, the peak hours’ demand and supply touched a figure of 4,295MW and 3,760MW, causing a shortfall of 535MW. However, in Lahore (except the areas falling under service jurisdiction of high loss feeders) no loadshedding is being observed,” an official source in Lesco told Dawn…

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