Prime
Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi today chaired
a meeting to review issues related to furnace oil and petroleum.
Minister
for Power Sardar Awais Ahmed Leghari, Secretaries of Finance, Power and
Petroleum divisions, MD PSO and senior officers of concerned departments
attended the meeting.
The
meeting, while taking stock of the existing storage, production capacities of
the local refineries and consumption, decided to restrict import orders for the
furnace oil. Future import of furnace oil would be conditional to the approval
from the Cabinet Committee on Energy. This would help reducing the import bill
besides ensuring optimal operationalization of LNG-based power plants. The Prime Minister directed Ministry of Power and
Ministry of Petroleum to ensure proper planning so as to ensure maintenance of
required stocks of furnace oil to meet any emergent situation.
The
meeting also reviewed availability and consumption of gas by the power
sector. Discussing the issue of circular debt, resulting from
inefficiencies in transmission, distribution and recovery process of the
DISCOs, the Prime Minister directed that special attention should be paid
towards overhauling the system to avoid administrative losses and to find a
permanent solution to the issue. Simultaneously, a high level committee be
constituted to find solution to the existing issue. The committee would be headed
by the Minister for Power and would include representatives of Ministry of
Finance, Power and Petroleum division.
Minister
for Power Sardar Awais Ahmed Leghari also briefed the Prime Minister about
steps being taken by the Ministry towards streamlining the process of issuance
of new electricity connections to the consumers. He informed the Prime Minister
that by 15th January 2018,
all pending applications, which stood around 08 lacs during past few months,
would be disposed of. He said that a system is also being developed to ensure
provision of electricity connections to consumers within
15 days of application.
Minister for Power also briefed the meeting
about various other steps that have been taken to improve the performance of
various attached departments of the Power Ministry.