IMF hasn’t rejected proposal for relief in electricity bills: Minister

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Minister for Energy and Petroleum, Muhammad Ali, has asserted that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has not rejected proposal for provision of additional subsidy in power tariff as the government deals with protests against inflated electricity bills, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

Speaking at ARY News programme ‘Khabar’, the caretaker minister said that the government was exchanging data regarding electricity bills with the global lender on daily basis.

“IMF has not rejected our proposal for relief in electricity bills,” Muhammad Ali said, expressing confidence that the lender will not reject their proposal but it may make some changes.

Moreover, the caretaker minister said that the Fund will respond to government’s proposal for the relief in electricity bills by tomorrow (Wednesday).

The minister pointed out that the government will have to acquire money to defer the electricity bill of August. “If the government acquires money and defers the bill, then it will have to pay the loses also,” he added.

He also backed the caretaker government’s decision to launch crackdown against defaulters and power thieves, noting that IMF had demanded to prevent line losses and electricity theft.

The inflated power bills triggered country-wide protests from Karachi to Khyber and protests in some parts of the country turned violent.

The protesting masses have been demanding that the government should end the provision of free electricity to the notables and provide them relief as the bills they have been receiving are more than their salaries.

A day earlier, it was reported that Pakistan failed to convince the IMF for relief in electricity bills as it could affect the recovery of up to Rs6.5 billion as per the government’s plan.

Sources closer to the finance ministry told ARY News that Pakistan and IMF did not reach a consensus over the relief on electricity bills. It was learnt that the caretaker government told the Fund in its plan that the relief would affect the recoveries by up to Rs6.5 billion.

It emerged that the Fund rejected the plan as it could have affected the recoveries by more than Rs15 billion. The IMF also sought a plan from Pakistan to fill the financial gap of Rs15 billion.

Earlier in the day, sources claimed that the government in its communication with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggested a new relief plan for electricity bills.

Sources claimed that the caretaker government decided to use the allocation for IPPs in budget to give relief in electricity bills.

The government decided to utilize over 15 billion rupees allocated for the independent power producers (IPPs), to offer relief on the inflated electricity bills, sources said.

“The finance ministry has dispatched fresh relief proposal for electricity bills to the IMF,” according to sources.

“Over 15 billion rupees were additionally allocated for payment to the IPPs in current fiscal year’s budget,” sources said. “This amount can be adjusted to provide relief on bills,” sources said.