A meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet held in Islamabad on Tuesday with Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb in chair. The meeting was attended by Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Commerce Mr. Jam Kamal Khan (virtual), Economic Affairs Ahad Khan Cheema (virtual), Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Ali Pervaiz Malik, federal secretaries, and senior officers from concerned ministries and departments. The ECC considered proposal submitted by the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) regarding a winter demand initiative for the industrial, domestic (ToU and non-ToU consumers exceeding 200 units, commercial and general services consumers of discos and K-Electric to enable optimum use of system generation capacity besides reducing gas demand due to shifting of favourabe demand towards electricity.

It was proposed that under the initiative, a tariff of 26.07 Rs/kWh shall be charged to all eligible consumers on the respective incremental consumption, above the benchmark consumption in the corresponding months. The initiative shall remain applicable for a three-month billing period effective from December 2024 to February 2024. The benchmark consumption will be the higher of either the relevant month’s consumption in FY2024 or the historical consumption over the past 3 years for the relevant months, based on a formula and terms and conditions laid before the ECC. The ECC discussed the proposal and approved it, calling the subsidy-neutral interim relief initiative worked out by the Power Division as being timely and relevant in view of recent surge in electricity tariffs and the reduced demand across various consumer categories.

The ECC also considered a proposal submitted by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for transfer of Rs 3.140 billion balances of erstwhile Emergency Relief Cell (ERC) into NDMA Fund to carry out its inland as well as overseas rescue and relief operations in line with the statutory mandate of the Authority. The proposal was discussed and approved with the proviso that since the balances in the ERC were made up of public donations and were granted for the purpose of relief, rescue and rehabilitation of floods and earthquake victims, NDMA would spend these balances for the stated purpose.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan