DNA
KARACHI
It is impossible to fathom that even after investing $10 billion to add around 10,000 MW power generation capacity to the national grid, we are still discussing closure of industries’ one shift.
With growth plummeting and inflation surging such a step would be economically and socially disastrous.
Closure of industries’ one shift would result in lower income for everyone especially the lowest segment of the society who is already facing the brunt of higher prices thereby increasing their misery even further.
Moreover, tax collection would be negatively affected because of reduced economic activity worsening the fiscal deficit when reducing it is one the main demands of IMF.
It is also undo Governments tall claims of enhancing exports and delay in deliveries of export consignments. It will also give negative perception to our foreign buyers who are expecting timely deliveries.
With over 30,000 MW generation capacity available and maximum demand of 25,000 MW, there is no need for load management.
It’s well known fact that we are underutilizing RLNG facilities by not managing to import enough RLNG quantities to meet our demand and supply. Simply it’s a bad load management scenario.
The economy should not be kept hostage to lack of liquidity in the power sector due to circular debt, supply chain issues, transmission losses etc especially after $10 billion was invested in the power sector in the last 5 years.
The government must take all the steps needed to ensure generation capacity is utilized to its potential to avoid load shedding in the month of Ramadan and closure of industries’ one shift must not be considered as an option.
K-Electric has announced load shedding time without any consultation with industrial associations from 1130 pm to 0730. By doing this K-Electric has forced industries to run their factories in peak hours’ time, which will increase the cost of production.President Saleem Parekh asked K-Electric to show some professionalism and respect major customers, who provide bread and butter to the organization.
