Interim govt comes up with ‘power relief plan’

Liaquat Ali

Islamabad: The interim government devised a strategy to provide relief to power consumers on exorbitant electricity bills, with a reduction of Rs 3,000 for users consuming 300 units.

Reports suggest that bills for power consumers who are consuming 300 units in September will be decreased by the aforementioned amount.

The government is presently awaiting permission from the IMF before enforcing this policy.

The government, a couple of days back, shared a plan with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to provide relief to the people in connection of the electricity bills, which triggered protests across the country, with an assurance that none of the targets agreed upon by the previous government would be compromised.

Caretaker Minister for Finance Dr Shamshad Akhtar said a team comprising Pakistani authorities met the IMF officials. Though she was not part of the team in talks with the global lender, she reiterated Pakistan’s commitments to follow the IMF programme.

There are reports that the provision for an emergency allocation of Rs 250 billion in the budget for 2023-24 in the IMF programme could be utilised to provide relief to electricity consumers.

It is expected that the IMF will give its reply anytime on Thursday and those consuming up to 300 units will get a relief.

Sources say the IMF would not agree with any reduction on taxes imposed through the electricity bills but it could agree on collecting the amount of the monthly bills for August and September in installments.