The National Electricity Policy of 2020 that has yet to be officially approved has measures within it to end accumulation of outstanding amounts through a mechanised recovery system. Over the decades, public departments, both provincial and federal, have withheld power bills running in billions for one reason or another. The draft policy to be presented at the upcoming meeting of the Council of Common Interests, if approved, proposes that provincial departments pay their bills and outstanding sums automatically from the National Finance Commission award and departmental budgets. Provinces have come under power debt trap because of multiple reasons. Firstly, bureaucratic hurdles hinder the timely release of budgets. Secondly, the lack of required budgets remains a chronic issue. And finally, public departments default on power bills as a routine matter. Hardly any department faced action such as penalties or suspension of power supply. Hopefully, the automatic deduction of bills from the NFC award will free public departments from power liabilities. On the other hand, the power sector will surly gain financial self-reliance heading towards a subsidy-free regime. In fact, governmental subsidies should be only for the agriculture sector. Moreover, the Power Policy of 2020 also proposes a gradual end to imported fuels for power generation. That may happen when the policy gives clear guidelines for the finest exploitation of local resources such as coal, water, gas, and nuclear energy. In the last decade, government after government h focused on the construction of multipurpose water reservoirs and tapping of hydro power potential in the country. So far, two power policies have brought a visible change in the country. The first is the one introduced by the government of Benazir Bhutto in 1993 under which the era of independent power producers set in bringing the country to a surplus. The policy, though scuttled by the government of Nawaz Sharif, made the country a net power producer till 2007, when rising demand started a new age of horrible load shedding. The PPP government tried to fill the gaps with measures like rental power systems, but the judiciary did not let it work. The next government of Nawaz Sharif, however, brought about a revolution in the power sector. For the first time, renewable power generation beside public-private partnership made the country power-surplus. Meanwhile, power policies did not try to improve the working of producers, transmission and power distribution systems. Hopefully, the 2020 policy is the first step towards efficient working of departments. *