Daily Times

Pakistan Businesses Forum (PBF) has demanded the federal government to carry out due structural changes in the power sector through measures to inculcate service oriented approach in power distribution companies (Discos).

Vice President, Pakistan Businesses Forum, Ahmad Jawad, in a statement on Thursday, stressed that improvement in the power sector could be possible through addressing the root causes- corruption, inefficiency and poor engineering practices – and promoting professionalism in Discos.

The circular debt in the current fiscal year has lowered to Rs.260 billion in comparison to Rs.449 billion buildup in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year but this has happened mainly because of the power tariff increases, he asserted. “Transferring the burden of the debt to power consumers is not a sound strategy to tackle this issue”, he opined adding that power distribution companies (Discos) were in shambles both technically and financially that was evident from their unsatisfactory performance and far from acceptable standards of quality and reliability.

Jawad pointed out that non-adherence to standards in the construction and proper maintenance of distribution lines and equipment and haphazard installation of metering apparatus and service cables and wires resulted in very poor service to the consumers at large. Those factors not only caused frequent breakdowns and fatal accidents but also encouraged power thefts with and without connivance of line staff of the distribution companies, he alleged adding that there has been little training in force to the field staff and their supervisors resulting in poor workmanship.

He was of the view that NEPRA’s call for the privatization of Discos was unlikely going to be fruitful as the K Electric example was there, whose service was as bad as of other Discos. “Going from one monopoly to another is not going to solve the problems,” he noted and remarked that Privatization of a utility was only beneficial when there was a strong will with merit and transparency.

The vice president PBF suggested that the incumbent PTI government may move forward with the due structural changes in the power sector as they still have two years of their constitutional term.