Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Deputy Chairman National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has said if anybody is paying for the electricity, while other community members are not paying, under the NEPRA rules his connection cannot be disconnected.

Senate Panel on delegated legislation met here in parliament house under the Chairmanship of Senator Taj Haider of PPP. The Committee directed the cabinet division and its affiliated departments to submit all acts, laws, rules, regulations, notifications, SROs and TROs before the committee for further discussion in the next meeting. ‘ Haider said that committee members will meet Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani for further guidance.

In the meeting Secretary Cabinet Division, representatives of Oil and Gas regulatory Authority (OGRA), NEPRA, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) and Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) briefed the committee regarding the laws, rules and regulations of respective departments.

Haider said that OGRA, PEMRA, NEPRA, PTA and PPRA are regulatory bodies and other departments which are directly under the Cabinet Division. “Committee’s basic work is to see what are loopholes and shortcomings; we have to recommend betterment in these departments”, he maintained. He said it is hectic task and time consuming too and the committee is not in hurry and have to wait for completion of their work. Secretary of the Cabinet Division said that through the review we have to look rules and regulation either according to law or not. When rules made send them to law ministry for wattage, he added.

He informed the committee that President’s salary, allowance and privileges Act 1975 as amended up to 09-12-2012. The act determines the perks/privileges of the President and makes provision for enabling him to discharge conveniently and with dignity the duties of his office. President’s pension Act 1974, the act determines for the payment of pension to the persons who have held the office of the President and his widow.

Prime Minister’s salary, allowance and privileges act 1975 as amended up to 18-08-2015. The act determines the perks/privileges of the PM and makes provision for enabling him to discharge conveniently and with dignity the duties of his office. Federal ministers and ministers of state salaries allowances and privileges act 1975 as amended up to 18-08-2015, he added.

These all mentioned rules are made by the federal government conferred by article 90 and 99 of the constitution, he said.

PTA Chairman, while briefing the panel said that withholding tax is 14%.

When Haider said that telecommunication is service and withholding and sales tax should be given to the provinces, the PTA chairman informed that Universal Service Fund (USF), dealt directly by ministry of Information Technology.

DG Legal PTA informed the committee that his department made five rules regarding to access promotion, universal devices fund, research and development, PTA chairman and members appointment and frequency allocation board rules notified. There is also 21 regulations made regarding to Access promotion regulations, accounting separation, broadband quality service, cellular mobile network, class value added services and licensing, fixed line tariff, standards, interconnection, mobile number probability, virtual networking, monitoring and reconciliation, he maintained. Besides international telephony traffic 21 regulations made, including number allocation, protection from health effects of radio base station antennas an protection from spam, unsolicited, fraudulent and obnoxious communication etc regulations, he said.

Representative of OGRA told the committee that nine rules made in which petroleum refining, blending and marketing, natural gas licensing, tariff, CNG production and marketing, LPG production and distribution, LNG licensing, natural gas (third party access) oil refining, blending, transportation, storage and marketing included in it.

Ten regulations has made in which complaint regulation procedure, uniform accounting, gas transmission, distribution (technical standards), financial, service and well-head price etc regulations, he said. Chairman of the committee, members of the committee Saeed Ghani and Azam Sawati raised the issues of load-shading and corrupt practices in distribution of electricity. NEPRA Deputy Chairman briefed the committee and said that power distribution companies only can disconnect connections of those who are not paying bills. He said that companies disconnecting even those who paying on the administrative orders, which also not allowed.

He informed the committee that NEPRA made 11 rules and 17 regulations. In rules; tariff standards and procedures, licensing in distribution, generation, fee, fines, performance standards, generation, uniform system of accounts, market operator registration and compliant handling and dispute resolution. While in regulations licensing application and modification, fee pertaining to tariff standards and procedure, eligibility criteria for consumers, resolution disputes between independent power producers and licensees, service, interim power procurement, financial, procedure for filling appeal before the authority, competitive bidding tariff, alternative and renewable energy, Standard procedures operating procedure (SOPs) for inspection, examination and provision of copies of documents, he added.

Representative of PPRA said that his organisation came into being through Public Procurement Regulation Authority Ordinance, 2002, which was notified in May, same year. Through it is regulating public procurement of goods, services and works.

He said they made six regulations and only one rule, while Public procurement rules, 2004 notified in June same year. He said public procurement regulations, 2008 notified in June same year. Allow use of standards bidding documents of the Pakistan Engineering council for procurement of works, he added.

IPO representative briefed the Committee regarding his organisation and said that his organisation established through IPO act, 2012. Through the legislation IPO established to provide for institutional arrangement in the state setup for talking up exclusively and comprehensively all subject matter relating to intellectual property rights, he added. He informed those only three rules and two regulations.