A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Power was held at Parliament House recently.
Convened by Senator Fida Muhammad, the meeting was attended by Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak, Senator Siraj ul Haq, Senator Ahmed Khan, Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan, Senator Mirza Muhammad Afridi, Senator Muhammad Akram, Senator Molvi Faiz Muhammad, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, and senior officers from the Power Division, NEPRA along with all concerned departments.
The meeting commenced with a discussion on circular debt regarding a discrepancy in the per month figure of Rs. 42 billion vs Rs. 29 billion. It was asserted that this was due to subsidies that were provided to K-Electric. The committee asserted that a uniform policy must be pursued in the whole country and wheeling must be pursued as per international standards.
The committee was briefed regarding the alleged removal of domestic meters of small farmers for running mono motors on single-phase domestic connections by GEPCO. Points of public importance regarding the exact figure of the circular debt and transparency in the PESCO recruitment process were considered as well.
The committee was informed that the testing agency had not provided a carbon copy of the answer sheet to candidates.
During the current recruitment phase companies were instructed to finalize the hiring by an independent testing agency after a competitive process as per PPRA Rules in consultation with the Ministry of Energy (Power Division). The Committee formed an informal committee to review the matter in detail.
While being briefed about the alleged removal of domestic meters of small farmers for running mono motors on single-phase domestic meters for irrigation, the Committee was informed that certain consumers have got connections under domestic tariff for their Deras but they are running single-phase Mono Motors and tube wells up to 4-8 KW for irrigation.
The use of Mono Motor for agricultural purposes on domestic meters is a violation of tariff against which connection was applied and granted. As per SOPs consumers have to apply for agricultural connections.
The committee directed that this matter will be taken up in detail in the next meeting and that until then all connections must be restored. It was also stressed that agricultural policy must be revised and made more farmer-friendly. CEO GEPCO was summoned in the next meeting.
