Yet again the government has promised to “end power outages soon” as better inflow into rivers brings another 2,000 megawatts of electricity into the grid and helps it grab the headlines one more time. But we’ve heard all this before. In fact, most people were expecting something like this because in the few months that the new government has been in power, they have become quite used to recurring promises about “ending load shedding very soon” that never come true. They also understand – clearly a lot better than the government – that a few days of pleasant rain might fill reivers and generate more hydel power for a few weeks, but that’s a far thing from “ending” the problem anytime soon. A lot better piece of news would have been some sort of success in the hunt for adequate LNG cargoes before time really runs out. According to the latest reports, the government has released a purchase tender to procure 10 cargoes for delivery through September. But even as it waits and sees the market response, especially since the Russia-Ukraine war has cramped supply lines, the biggest problem is that the bill is expected to run into something in excess of $1 billion. And we don’t have such money in the bank for things like this; even though it is already a full-scale emergency. Procuring expensive fuel is all the more problematic in light of the record trade deficit recorded in the last fiscal. It’s understood that behind the scenes the government is trying to cosy up to the leadership of Qatar for urgent gas supply on deferred payment, but on the surface, it’s still struggling for a better line than “all will be well very soon”, which the people have simply stopped buying. They’re also very angry that once again they are made to pay, quite literally through their nose, for abject incompetence and corruption in government, which includes more than one particular administration. Now, owing to utter neglect, we’re at the point where even if we can miraculously manage to get the gas we need at the price we can afford it, we still won’t be able to store it because we do not have adequate capacity. And any hopes of removing this particular roadblock from the way till the contracts are decided are quickly put to rest by the characteristic inefficiency of the bureaucratic machinery. Therefore, while everybody would like to believe that power outages will end, or reduce, very soon, they’d rather believe it when they see it. *