While federal minister for power Khurrum Dastagir Khan promised to keep electricity tariffs stable despite an increase in coal costs, he said that talks with coalition partners on the price of petroleum products are currently in progress.
New Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the new government’s priority would be resolving consumer complaints immediately. Decisions on fuel and electricity subsidies would be made in a joint meeting of allies.
According to Khan, “When the PML-N finished its term in 2018, there was ample power supply in Pakistan, but when the coalition government came into office in April, they had to deal with an electricity problem.”
In addition, the electricity minister said that when they took over the administration, residents were experiencing eight to ten hours of load shedding. He blamed “the curse of Imran Khan and the four years of his incompetence” for the current problem. Still, He assured us that the government is working hard to overcome it.
Khan said that Lahore has no load-shedding because of the low number of line outages in such regions.
The former administration did not acquire fuel, gas, or coal on schedule; thus, 7,000MW of capacity remained closed. However, if foreign prices continue to rise at their current pace, “we will tackle this issue,” he added.
The electricity minister highlighted the urgent need for current style meters and indicated that requests for new connections would be reviewed in 10 days, emphasizing that this is a priority.
Because of the rising warmth, “we will encounter some issues,” he added, “we are also watching the growth in demand for power.”
‘If we can address the eight-hour load shedding,’ Khan argued, we can solve other problems.