ISLAMABAD: The ministry of water and power has told the senate standing committee on water and power that if the power short fall is overcome even then it will not be able to supply electricity to the consumers due to weakness in the system and if no load-shedding is observed then all the distribution companies will go bankrupt.
The committee met under its Chairman Senator Sardar Yaqub at the Parliament House on Wednesday.
The committee was told that all the power distribution companies were being supplied electricity from the National Grid Station (NGS) as per their demand.
The existing system is weak and the load is existing on transmission lines in several areas more than their capacity due to which several feeders trip.
The committee expressed concern over prolonged load-shedding during the holy month of Ramadan and it declared the performance of power distribution companies as unsatisfactory.
The committee said that 15 days of Ramadan had elapsed but undeclared load-shedding is continuing in several areas of the country.
Senator Taj Haider said that the chief minister and the people of Sindh complain about load-shedding and the people go to the streets due to load-shedding. If power is generated 300 megawatt every year then its demand goes upto 2000 megawatts. If you go on working at this pace then it will be next to impossible to rein over load-shedding till 2050. The wind of Sindh has also been taken away by the federation. 300 megawatts electricity is being generated from wind and the government programme is to increase it to 450 megawatts while its demand in interior Sindh is 1800 megawatts. A comprehensive plan be devised on this count.
Secretary water and power Younus Dhakka told the committee that electricity was being supplied to the provinces according to their demand.
About QESCO he said it was decided during a meeting with the former chief minister that the authority should supply us electricity for eight hours so that we are billed less. The consumers have to pay bills amounting to Rs 10000 but they don’t pay.
Senator Dawood Khan Achakzai said that he was also present in the meeting and it was decided that the consumer will pay Rs 10000 against a Rs 60000 bill and 60 per cent out of the remaining bill will be paid by the provincial government and 40 per cent by the federal government.
Funds were released for construction of a dam in Abdullah constituency but work could not be started and the government distributed the funds to its favourites.
Senator Noman told the committee that the water and power department is on the brink of destruction and KP’s share of electricity is given to FESCO.
The committee was told that recovery of only Rs 93 has been made in the entire feeder of Dera Bugti and “we cannot even suspend the supply”. The chairman committee said ” it is known to us the electricity supply is more in the areas where less recovery is made and it is less in the areas where more recovery is made.