Protests, sit-ins across the country led by Hafiz Naeemur Rehman against increase in electricity bills started yielding positive results

ISLAMABAD, Jan 7 (SABAH): Protests and sit-ins across the country led by Emir Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Engineer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman against the increase in electricity bills and expensive electricity started yielding positive results due to which the government wants to make electricity cheaper by Rs 10 per unit.

According to the sources, the first option of the federal government is to transfer the benefit of negotiations with IPPs to the people, while by terminating the contracts with five IPPs, the government will save a total of Rs411 billion rupees and this saving will be Rs70 billion rupees annually.

Sources of Ministry of Energy say that Rs238 billion rupees will be saved by changing the tariff of eight power plants of Bagasse.

This saving amounts to 8 billion 83 crore rupees per annum, further 481 billion rupees will be benefited as a result of the contracts with 16 IPPs, the benefit of termination or change of IPPs contracts will be given to the consumers.

Sources said that the federal the government is also considering extending the winter electricity facility package for cheaper electricity, while a proposal to reduce the burden of taxes on electricity bills is also under consideration.

The federal government receives more than Rs800 billion rupees annually from taxes on electricity bills. Sources from the Ministry of Energy further said that with all these measures, the government wants to make electricity cheaper by 10 rupees per unit.

It is noteworthy here that under the leadership of Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, Jamaat-e-Islami had held nationwide protests and sit-ins after which the government had accepted demands regarding decrease in electricity bills during the negotiations.