Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday chaired the 47th meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI). He approved the National Electricity Policy 2021.

The session headed by the prime minister was attended by federal ministers, chief ministers and other officials.

While talking to media, Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar said that the Council approved the National Electricity Policy 2021 with the consensus and approval of all provinces.

The new electricity policy has been approved for 10 years,” he said, adding that people will get cheaper and environment-friendly electricity under the new power policy approved by the CCI.

The minister said that the policy should have been approved by previous governments however, it was not. He said that the PTI government is working towards resolving the issues of the power sector including circular debt.

“Had we put in place a policy like this 15 years ago, we would not have a troubled power sector today,” the minister added.

Hammad Azhar said that the according to the new electricity policy, policies for sub-ssectors will be devised. He added that the PTI government had allocated Rs100 billion in the federal budget 2021-22 to improve transmission lines.

In the previous CCI meeting chaired by PM Khan on June. 18, the meeting discussed in detail the draft of the National Electricity Policy 2021 and constituted a committee to further deliberate upon the proposed policy.

The body was tasked to present the final draft before the CCI in its next meeting on Monday.

The committee comprises the finance minister, energy minister, law minister, SAPM for Power and chief ministers of the four provinces.