ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Rana Muhammad Hayat Khan criticised his own government over prolonged load-shedding and high electricity bills during a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Energy.
Rana Muhammad Hayat said electricity bills had become unaffordable for the public and questioned how the government would return to voters under such circumstances.
Federal Minister for Energy Awais Leghari told the committee that the government was planning to introduce a system under which electricity would be disconnected at the transformer level instead of shutting down entire feeders to curb power theft. The regulatory framework for the new system is expected to be introduced by April or May next year.
According to Leghari, around 3,500 of the country’s approximately 14,000 feeders are experiencing load-shedding due to electricity theft and line losses. He said significant investment was required to upgrade the distribution companies’ (DISCOs) electricity infrastructure.
The federal minister added that the government had prepared an investment plan to improve the power system. He also said the use of batteries by consumers had increased following changes to the net-metering system.
The committee also discussed various issues related to grid stations, transformers and the infrastructure of power distribution companies.
