Punjab govt discontinues Rs14 per unit electricity subsidy for Islamabad consumers

A subsidy of Rs14 per unit in the electricity bills for the consumers of the federal capital announced in August for two months has been suspended by the Punjab government, the Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (IESCO) said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the notification from the power utility, consumers will not receive any relief in the electricity bills for September. 

The IESCO has also notified that orders have been issued for a change in the billing software. 

The subsidy worth Rs45 billion was announced on August 16 by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif for Punjab and the federal capital for the months of August and September.

The relief was announced for consumers using 201 to 500 units per month. However, the Punjab power consumers would get relief in the next month’s power bills.

The Punjab government was met with criticism by the opposing leaders of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who at the time stated that the subsidy was a futile and short-term attempt to provide relief to the masses reeling under sky-high power tariffs.

PPP leader Murtaza Wahab, speaking on the Geo News programme Naya Pakistan stated that every government is responsible for providing long-term relief instead of short-lived measures.

The mayor of Karachi, whose party had formed a coalition government with the PML-N in the Centre, also invited the federal government to work on long-term plans to provide relief to the masses.

Adviser on Finance to the Chief Minister of KP Muzammil Aslam was another political figure who disagreed with the subsidy. During the same program on Geo News, he stated that it would be tantamount to wasting public resources in the name of relief.

He added that Sindh and KP were generating electricity at a low cost saying that the cost of per unit electricity would be Rs8 through the new power projects in KP whereas the Punjab government is generating electricity at the cost of Rs75 per unit via imported furnace.