PM Kakar vows to come up with out-of-box solution for electricity consumers

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister (PM) Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Monday assured that his government was exploring realistic options to come up with out-of-box solutions to provide relief to electricity consumers, ARY News reported.

Speaking to foreign journalists, the prime minister said that the government would make informed decisions to satisfy electricity consumers on the issue of inflated bills without deviating from the country’s commitments with international financial institutions.

Mentioning the issues of circular debt, power theft, and taxes, PM Kakar said the government would introduce short-term solutions to the issue without undermining the agitating people.

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

During his interaction today, the caretaker PM assured that the interim government was mandated to facilitate holding the general elections as early as possible while observing the constitutional obligations.

He pointed out that the Constitution called for carrying out the delimitation following the population census.

PM Kakar said without redesigning the government structure, the caretaker setup was mainly focused on rearranging the fiscal and monetary policies to build an edifice for economic revival.

Calling the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) a strategy for economic revival, he said it focused on agriculture, mines and minerals, defence production and information technology.

However, he also spelled out the economic reform agenda of his government, saying that the imminent steps included the privatisation of two or more power distribution companies.

He said the reforms needed in taxation and power sectors and that the government would leave behind a basis for mid-level reforms.

The caretaker premier further said the government was pursuing a policy of doing the doable and providing a strategic direction to the economic planning.

To a question, he said all the registered political parties would be provided a level playing field to contest the general elections without any discrimination.

However, he said in certain instances, political behavior turned into vandalism and the country’s law was already in vogue to deal with such conduct.

Anwaarul Haq Kakar also said regardless of any political association, the people of Balochistan welcomed every project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which had entered the second phase.

He reiterated the government’s resolve to go to any extent to protect the Chinese workers taking part in the CPEC projects.

Referring to the massive reserves worth $6 trillion of copper and gold in Balochistan, the prime minister said the Reko Diq project was about to start soon.

He called for all the stakeholders to formulate a model to explore the mineral-rich area to make the world see Pakistan through a different prism.

‘Pakistan fails to convince IMF on relief in electricity bills’

Earlier in the day, it was reported that Pakistan failed to convince the International Monetary Fund (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 to electricity consumers. 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.

Sources added that the caretaker set-up delayed the announcement for relief on the electricity bill as it is going to share the revised plan with the IMF.

After sharing the new plan, the finance ministry and the IMF officials will hold negotiations again. The Pakistani caretaker government assured the IMF that the required relief would not violate the budgetary limitations.