ISLAMABAD, July 22: Meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Privatisation was held today under the chairmanship of Senator ShamimAfridi. Federal Minister for PrivatisationMr.AbidHussainBhayo, Federal Secretary Dr.Iram A. Khan as well as senior officials and consultants of the Ministry attended the meeting.
The committee discussed the privatisation of PESCO and IESCO. Secretary Privatisation briefed the committee that, in view of the past lessons learnt and latest global practices, for the privatisation of DISCOs, “Pakistan Model” was also proposed by a working group comprising officials from Ministry of Privatisation, NEPRA, Power Division, CPPA-G and World Bank.
Furthermore, the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) in May 2021 had approved the concession contracts for eight of the ten DISCOs, whereas management contract was approved for QESCO & TESCO. However, there have been subsequent changes in policy and regulatory framework which has direct impact on DISCOs and the scope of concession and management contracts to be developed as part of this arrangement. The members of the standing committee discussed the extent of technical and commercial losses in various DISCOs and efforts being put in by the Power Division to improve. The chair highlighted his own billing issue experienced. During the meeting, the role and responsibility of the Provincial governments and law enforcing agencies as envisaged in National Electrical Policy (2021) was also discussed. The committee was also informed that CCoP in its meeting held in June this year has directed Power Division to write to all the provinces through the Ministry of IPC for negotiation in buying the relevant DISCOs, and letters to that effect have been dispatched to the Provinces. – PR
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