Business icon and former trade minister Gohar Ejaz has said that high power prices are hitting hard the industry resultantly sinking the key sector of the country, reported 24NewsHD TV Channel.
Taking to his social media handle on X (Twitter), Gohar Ejaz said that in order to control it, the Power Division must carefully review their DISCO consumption charts.
While sharing the official data, Gohar Ejaz said, industrial consumption has gone down by 7% in the last two years (FY24/25 vs FY22/23), despite 1,000 MW of captive gas-based power plants reconnecting to the grid last year.
He further said that agriculture consumption has dropped by 38 percent with many consumers going off-grid. Around 11 million domestic consumers have shifted to solar, and the number of consumers in the below-200 units category has doubled.
Gohar Ejaz said this was adding further cross-subsidies to industrial tariffs, on top of the existing PKR 102 billion cross-subsidy burden, which could become a death warrant for industry. The former trade minister said the Power Division’s policy should focus on removing this cross-subsidy from industrial tariffs and take steps to renegotiate high-tariff IPPs, particularly coal- and wind-based, to bring industrial and domestic tariffs down, attract demand, and utilize idle capacity.
The incremental tariff terms set by the Power Division were not benefiting or attracting industry to consume more. Industry was already struggling to survive and losing export orders to competitors, with power costs around PKR 35 per unit (12 cents), while regional tariffs remain below PKR 25 per unit (9 cents). Industry cannot expand or increase consumption until regional tariffs are matched. He advised the Power Division to ensure that the industrial sector is not burdened with cross-subsidizing other consumer categories. If this golden goose dies, Pakistan ???????? and its people will suffer heavily.