KARACHI: The government could not fulfill its promise of resolving the power crisis in 2016 as the country imported Rs 282.5 billion worth of power generating machinery in the said year.
Despite claims by the government of bringing improvement in the energy crisis, power generating machinery’s demand soared as Pakistan spent Rs 172.9 billion on the import of power generating machinery during July-December of the current fiscal, showing 110 percent growth over same period of last fiscal.
This exorbitant rise clearly indicates that the demand for power generating machinery is continuously putting pressure on the import bill of Pakistan, as precious foreign currency is utilized for the import of generators. It is to be noted that Pakistan’s monthly average bill for power generating machinery stood at $52 million by 2012, however the lingering power outages pushed this bill gigantically up to $225 million in December 2016.
The government was continuously claiming addition of significant electricity on the national grid last year, but the statistics indicate that the country is still struggling to prevail over the shortage of energy. New fiscal year is still witnessing a gloomy situation in terms of persisting power shortages, which has led to 12 to 15 hours power load shedding per day in the country.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)’s first quarterly report for the fiscal year 2016-17 (FY17) said that the country’s import bill grew in current fiscal year led by an increase in machinery imports, the rise in non-oil imports more than offset the decline in Petroleum Oil Lubricants (POL) imports in the period. Machinery imports surged by 60.0 percent year on year (YoY) in the first quarter of FY17 and reached $ 2.7 billion, surpassing POL imports during the period.
In fact, 94.3 percent of the increase in overall imports in the period was due to the rise in machinery imports, the SBP added. A surge in investment in power generation and distribution infrastructure boosted demand for power generation and electrical machinery. Construction activities related to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects also put an upward pressure on imports of products like cranes, weighing machinery and compressors, and vacuum pumps, the report added.