K-Electric likely to get Rs57b ‘advance subsidy’

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar will chair the session of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet on Wednesday (tomorrow), ARY News reported.

Sources told ARY News that the agenda items include the fixation of wheat support price for the next season. The ECC is likely to approve Rs262 billion technical supplementary grant for the government-run power plants.

Moreover, the committee is expected to approve an advance subsidy worth Rs57 billion for K-Electric.

The agenda items also include the disbursement of additional Rs250 million funds for the Intelligence Bureau (IB) during the current fiscal year. Sources added that the ECC will also review tobacco cess rate for the next fiscal year.

In the previous session, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet approved the draft of a key agreement between K-Electric (KE) and the government of Pakistan entities.

The ECC took up the matter of approval of the draft of Power Procurement Agency Agreement (PPAA), Inter-Connection Agreement (ICA), Tariff Differential Subsidy (TDS) Agreement and Mediation Agreements to be signed with K-Electric. Ministry of Energy (Power Division) briefed the committee on the observations made by the members of the ECC and provided the requisite additional data on the working of the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA-G).

After detailed discussion and deliberation, ECC decided to approve the proposal of Power Division for signing of the draft PPAA, ICA, TDA and Mediation Agreements between K-Electric and GoP entities, read the statement.

Moreover, the ECC also directed Power Division to present the matter related to KE’s generation enhancement plan to the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE), which should focus on reducing the cost of electricity as well as on the resultant subsidies.

The meeting was attended by the Minister for Communication, Railways & Maritime Affairs Shahid Ashraf Tarar, the Minister for Privatization Fawad Hasan Fawad, Minister for Power & Petroleum Muhammad Ali, Advisor to PM on Finance Waqar Masood, Federal Secretaries, and other senior government officials of the relevant ministries.