OUR STAFF REPORTER LAHORE Pakistan Electric Power Company managing director has apologised from the consumers for persistent loadshedding, reiterating the reason behind the outages is fuel and gas shortages. Pepco MD Rasul Khan Mehsud, when took charge eight months ago, had promised maximum relief to the people during the summer season. But, the country is witnessing the worst electricity crises in the current season. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he denied taking responsibility of the outages. I swear, we are trying our best to provide relief to the people. Believe me it is not only the power crises but overall energy crises in the country, he stressed. Mehsud said that he stood upon his words that the electricity shortfall would not exceed 2,000MW, if the power sector get proper fuel and gas. He said that the Pepco could not fulfil its promise because the power plants were not provided with proper fuel supply. Explaining further, he added that Kapco was producing only 411MW against the capacity of 1,300MW while the Hubco was generating 800MW having capacity of 1,200MW. He added that the Lalpir power plant had been closed due to unavailability of fuel and it could produce 350MW. Current fuel supplies are far less than the previous year. The hydel generation had also been affected due to decrease in water releases from the reservoirs, he added. Mehsud said, I know the people are facing problems but please give weight to our efforts for fulfilling the industrys requirement. He said the Pepco gave preference to industries in terms of electricity supply. Due to this, he added, the industries growth rate went up at 7.2 percent, which never crossed 2.65 in the past. He added that the government brought down billions of rupees circular debt in the power sector. The government is providing Rs 1.16 subsidy on a single unit, which earlier was Rs 2.86, he said. Utilising the indigenous resources, construction of water reservoirs and exploration of coal-based energy were the best solution to end the power shortage, he said. We should work on Thar coal and other sources for producing energy including exploring gas resources. He said that the projects of 200-300MW could not overcome the electricity requirements and that there was a need to install mega projects. When asked about the Pepcos defaulters, MD said: Sindh is the defaulter of Rs 39 billion, Punjab is the non-payer of Rs nine billion, Khyber Pks debt reaches at Rs 20 billion, Balochistans non-payment is crossing Rs 4.6 billion and AJK has to pay Rs 9.5 billion. Besides this, he added, there were private defaulters. To a question, he replied that there would be no loadshedding during Sahar and Iftar in Ramazan.