Is govt imposing tax on solar net metering?

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Power Division Awais Leghari issued a clarification regarding government’s plans to impose taxation on the solar net metering.

Speaking at a private news channel, the minister ruled out any plans of the government to impose taxation on the solar net metering. “The government will not withdraw its regulations related to net metering for the already installed solar systems”, he said.

However, the minister said, the matter could come under consideration in next few years as the net metering could lead to fiscal losses and increase in circular debt.

Net metering is a billing tool that allows the consumers to send excess energy generated by solar panels to the local grid in exchange of credits to the monthly electric bills.

Leghari mentioned that capacity payments were a big challenge for the government and said reforms had been chalked out to bring improvement in the transmission system in next four years.

He urged the general public to resort to solar power to reduce load on system of power generation.

The minister said steps were being taken to improve customer care at distribution companies, check power theft and ensure crackdown against pilferage. He vowed ensuring zero tolerance against service delivery.

Leghari also hinted at privatisation of departments, for which, he said long-term agreements for award of operational management contracts were in pipeline. This way, the privatisation can be carried out after value-addition, he added.