Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Board of Directors Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO) in its 16thmeeting held under the chairmanship of Sahibzada Saeed Ahmed at Peshawar stated that it’s quite injustice, by deducting billions of rupees from provincial power stations as tax by federal entity. During the meeting the board showed its concern over receiving billions of rupees by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) from power generating stations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) as a tax. The members in order to resolve this issue soon presented various suggestions. Board also took various decisions for the development of departmental management matters. Meanwhile, chairman board stressed over the early completion of ongoing power projects in order to benefit the general public soon. The meeting was also attended by Secretary Energy & Power Engr. Naeem Khan, Secretary Finance Ali Raza Bhutta, Additional Secretary Home Ata ur Rehman, PESCO Chief Anwar Yousafzai, Senator Nauman Wazir, CEO PEDO Akbar Ayub Khan, Fuad Ishaq, Latif Khan, Abdullah Shah and other high level officials on Saturday. The meeting of Board stated with the active participation of private sector, 7 hydropower projects having 668 Megawatt generation capacities will be launched during the current year. These will add 2 billion dollars investment in province and will also increase the sources of employment opportunities in the province. The PEDO’s board examined the progress of work on ongoing power projects and certain suggestions were also presented by the members for working on fast track pace. The statement also stated that during this year seven projects of 668 MW will be initiated which sign for very encouraging outcome from private sector. The meeting adds in statement Beside these, 356 mini micro Hydel stations of 35 MW capacities were constructed in backward areas of KP province wherein people have been deprived of electricity. About 150 power stations have been completed while rest of these will be completed by the end of this year.