Owais Leghari, the federal minister of energy, disclosed that power rates are already falling as a result of renegotiations with independent power providers (IPPs), with more substantial relief possible.

After the agreements are finalized, the minister tells the National Assembly’s Power Committee that power rates could drop by Rs 10–12 per unit.

Leghari revealed that IPP-imposed capacity charges account for 75% of electricity expenses. “The public is being affected by the revision of these agreements,” he said, adding that agreements with 12 IPPs—including those that use bagasse—had been examined and negotiations for 15 more have been concluded.

“These changes will be approved by the cabinet next week, and within a month, decisions about captive power plants will be made,” he continued.

“The minister also announced that eight bagasse power plant adjustments have been approved and that five IPP contracts have been terminated. 16 more IPPs, including government-owned facilities, are now in talks. These renegotiations have already resulted in an electricity pricing reduction of Rs 4 per unit for domestic consumers.

Leghari addressed the issue of electricity theft in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and charged that the provincial government had not cooperated in spite of previous agreements. Before agreeing to cut off illicit connections, he disclosed that the KP chief minister had insisted on an unfettered supply of electricity to feeders with high rates of theft.

Leghari stated, “We carried out this agreement for 75 days, but the provincial administration did not take down the hooks, which cost our company an additional Rs 6 billion.”

Concerns about the continuous load shedding in KP were voiced by members of the load shedding and K-Electric tariff committee, which led to additional talks. “We do not believe that the proposed tariff is justified,” Leghari said, criticizing K-Electric’s multi-year tariff as a significant burden on consumers.

Walkout
At the meeting, committee members Shehryar Mehr, Sher Ali Arbab, and Junaid Akbar walked out in protest of a plan to discuss electricity supply company issues in Hyderabad and Sukkur behind closed doors.

In particular, by renegotiating contracts with IPPs and resolving inefficiencies, the energy minister reiterated the government’s commitment to reducing the financial burden on consumers through energy sector reforms.