The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) has launched its ‘OICCI Energy Report 2019’ here on Wednesday.
The report is based on the recommendations of the 31 leading international energy sector companies operating in Pakistan, who are members of the chamber. Pakistan’s energy sector has witnessed significant transformation over the past five years, with the power generation capacity increasing rapidly to over 39,000 MW by mid-2019, with the inclusion of two large RLNG based power plants, Thar coal project and imported coal-based power plants leading to a major shift in the energy mix. Despite the relative fast paced increase in the generation and transmission capacity, over 60 million Pakistanis do not have access to electricity from the grid, which not only impacts the economic growth of the country, but the economic exclusion has a social impact also. On top of this, the mounting circular debt in excess of Rs1.9 trillion and the inability of distribution companies to arrest the ever increasing technical and non-technical losses, continue to burden the national exchequer by an additional Rs40-50 billion annually.
Presenting the report, CE/Secretary General, OICCI, Abdul Aleem commented that “OICCI Energy Report 2019 includes a number of recommendations to streamline the Oil and Gas and Power sectors.