Caretaker govt continues to implement int’l pacts: Solangi

F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi on Friday said the caretaker government respected the international financial agreements and would continue to implement them in true letter and spirit.
Addressing a news conference here after the first session of two-day meeting of Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), the minister said deliberations were held on the measures which were essential for reducing the government’s expenditures and circular debt. He was flanked by Caretaker Minister for Finance Dr Shamshad Akhtar, Minister for Energy Muhammad Ali, and Minister for Industry and Production Gohar Ijaz.
Solangi said discussions were also held on working out a schedule for implementing the decisions already taken to carry out privatization of some departments. He said measures to stop misuse of international agreements, if there is any, also came under discussion. Restructuring of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), measures for removing bottlenecks in foreign direct investment, including visa policy reforms, and steps to improve performance of different departments were also part of extensive discussion held on the first day of the SIFC meeting.
He said an issue of smuggling of commodities, petroleum products and dollars were discussed at length. At the outset of the press conference, the minister said traditionally, a press release was issued to highlight the decisions and discussions of the SIFC, but from now onward, the public would be informed by the caretaker government through briefings by the relevant ministers. The main objectives of SIFC were to boost foreign direct investment in different sectors including mining, information technology and agriculture, the minister remarked.
Meanwhile, the Caretaker Minister for Energy, Power and Petroleum Muhammad Ali on Friday stressed the need of exploring oil and gas reserves in order to reduce the import bill. The minister said since 2013 work on the exploration of gas and oil had been lessened while annual import bill to meet their shortage persistently increased with rising circular debt. “We have to focus on exploration of oil and gas so that we can reduce our dependence on the imported fuel,” he added.
Muhammad Ali said the SIFC discussed ways and means to control the cost of electricity generation and it theft, and save capacity charges payment (to independent power producers) in the winter. “We want to give industries such a tariff in incremental supply so that we don’t face losses in capacity charges payment even if they use more electricity as compared to previous years,” the minister added.
He said matters related to governance and functioning of distribution companies (discos) and their privatization also came under discussion in the meeting. “We have to strengthen their governing boards and management, which will in turn help stop power theft and start recoveries,” he said.
The SFIC reviewed the possibility of evolving a mechanism under which the power plants could supply electricity directly to the industry after paying the wheeling charges, he added. The minister said the gas sector was also facing alarmingly high losses.”We have to improve the gas pricing structure in order to save the government from losses.” He said the meeting discussed as to how the industry could be provided the required gas despite its increased domestic consumption in the winter “We have to install more liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and also bring in more LNG in the coming days so that the industries can work to their full potential.”