Muhammad Asad
ISLAMABAD: Council of Common Interests (CCI) approved the National Electricity Policy-2021 unanimously during today’s meeting in the Nation’s Capital. It was informed by the Federal Minister for Energy Mr. Hammad Azhar along with Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Finance and revenue Mr. Waqar Masood during a news conference in Islamabad on Monday.
The policy would be effective for ten years and special emphasized had been given to renewable energy and hydel power, Hammad added while briefing the media men after the meeting of Council of Common Interests. According to him, if Pakistan could formulate such policy some more than one decade ago the public would not have to face the power problem.
According to him, government wants to introduce cheaper, renewable and environment friendly source of energy while keeping in view the long-term demands of the country. He said that government had generated 4000 megawatts electricity during last two years and heading to increase this production to 10,000 megawatts in next few years. According to him, at time generation of electricity is not the problem, but government is facing other issues such as transmission, provision of fuel and payments. Federal Minister for energy informed the media men that government has allocated sufficient funds for repair and construction of transmission infrastructure in the country in next fiscal year.
He claimed that the National Electricity Policy 2021 will help solve the day to day issues relating to power generation, transmission, provision and setting of tariffs in coming days. According to him, the new policy would make the bidding process more competitive, smooth, and transparent.
Hammad Azhar blamed the previous governments for lack of proper planning and said that while installation of power projects, no consideration had been given to the its location, provision of raw material and transportation of the product to the consumers, whereas all these jobs add to the price of the commodity.
SAPM on Finance and Revenue Waqar Masood said that government is establishing an advisory group which would work under the Prime Minister and oversee all matters related to tax recovery. He said government did not impose new taxes rather it has terminated few tax concessions which would lead to generate about 250 billion rupees in next fiscal year.
While defending government next year revenue collection target, Waqar Masood said that the government’s revenue target of 4700 billion rupees is a realistic goal because the potential removal of economic sanctions on Iran and provision of $ 1.5 billion facility by the Saudi Arabia would help in achieving this ambitious target during next fiscal year. He said that petroleum products are cheaper in Pakistan as compare to the rest of the World. Masood appreciated the Custom Department for his efforts for collection of revenue and enforcement of anti-Smuggling measures across the country in general and Balochistan in particular.
