The Pakistan government has shelved its plan for the time being to privatise selected power distribution companies (Discos) but board of directors of some Discos may be changed in the coming weeks.
“For the time being, the power sector privatisation has been put on hold and efforts are under way to bring desired reforms into the power sector while keeping them into the public sector,” ministry of water and power secretary Younas Dagha told the participants of the Leaders’ Summit organised by top power distribution
companies yesterday.
He said in the near foreseeable future, privatisation was not on the cards, so the capacity of public sector would be required to be enhanced in order to get the desired
results.
He said the power sector was facing difficulty to retain capable human resource within the fold of the public sector as their trained workforce were either hired by the IPPs or got jobs in the Middle East and even in developed world, including Canada.
“The high-powered Energy Committee is considering options to increase incentives for employees of the power sector. We are working on this plan and it is hoped that through better remuneration the skilled workforce will be retained,” he added.
In his presentation, he said that the power sector, in terms of generation, transmission and distribution, would be improved and loadshedding would be abolished within the next couple of years.
After his presentation, about shelving the privatisation plan, he said the government would have to ultimately go ahead.
To another query regarding overhauling of boards of Discos, he said some boards were already changed and he could share that boards of some more Discos would be changed in the coming few weeks.
Under the IMF deal for $6.64bn extended fund facility (EFF), Islamabad had made a commitment to privatise three Gencos and nine Discos. The case of Faisalabad, Lahore and Islamabad distribution companies is at an advanced stage.
Under an IMF condition, Fesco was required to be privatised by June, 2016. Lahore and Islamabad power distribution companies along with northern and Jamshoro power generation companies were scheduled to be privatised by September this year.
When contacted, high-ups of the Privatisation Commission said the government had not communicated any written decision to them so they were waiting to get official directions on this issue.
“We are expecting that the economic ministers under chairmanship of the finance minister will meet next week to decide the fate of the power sector, either to put it on hold or privatise a few of them. At the moment, we cannot confirm anything about it,” they said.