Imported fuel, transmission issues increasing power tariff: Mian Zahid Hussain

Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday said cheap electricity is essential to improve the standard of living of masses.

Affordable electricity boosts industrial and agricultural production and makes services cheap, which helps the masses improve their lives.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that tiny powerhouses should be preferred over big ones as practised in the developed world, which can help resolve the power sector issues.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that tiny powerhouses and focused on solar, and wind power can help overcome losses worth trillions of rupees.

He said that according to a report of the World Bank, twenty percent of electricity is wasted on theft and weak infrastructure. At the same time, efficiency and transmission issues result in losses worth $4.5 billion.

Fifty million people have no access to electricity, while ninety million face load shedding, resulting in monetary and social problems.

He said the country imports fossil fuel worth billions, squeezing resources and adding to the pollution. Pakistan is producing 64 percent of electricity through imported fuel, increasing as the economy takes off.

Efforts to improve the transmission system and introduce renewable energy are half-hearted, which should be given a boost while energy policy should be altered to make it according to the ground realities, he demanded.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that the whole energy system should be revived and revisited so that masses could get affordable electricity which will also boost industrial and agricultural production and boost exports which are imperative for national development.

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