Separate tariff for exporters welcomed

LAHORE (Staff Reporter): The Pakistan Industrial & Traders Associations Front (PIAF) chairman Irfan Iqbal Sheikh has welcomed the government plan of introducing separate power tariff for export sector, which would be at par with the tariff of regional competing countries. Besides appreciating the announcement, he asked the authorities to also fulfill its commitment of undertaking all possible measures aimed at creating an enabling environment for the export sector to grow and making competitive headway globally. Irfan Iqbal Sheikh in a joint statement along with senior vice chairman Tanveer Sufi and Vice chairman Shahzeb Akram said that the business community had been demanding of the government since long to focus on bringing down high energy cost as Pakistan was losing export markets to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam and other regional countries due to high power tariffs. But it was unfortunate that instead of bringing down electricity price, government was taking measures to further enhance it that would badly affect business and industrial activities causing further fall in country's exports.
The PIAF chairman said that line losses and defaults in LESCO were low as compared to other Discos and it was unjustified to make the consumers of this Disco to pay for the defaulters of other areas.

KPOGDCL asked to streamline affairs

PESHAWAR (Bureau Report): Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly's Standing Committee on Energy has directed the Board of Governors and Chief Executive Officer of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil and Gas Limited to streamline human resource affairs with immediate effect. The meeting of the Standing Committee was held here Friday at Assembly Secretariat with MPA Qurban Ali Khan in the chair. Besides, MPAs Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli, Najma Shaheen, Aizaz-ul-Mulk and Syed Jaffar Shah, the higher authorities of energy, law and finance departments also attended the meeting. The committee after thorough deliberations also directed the provincial government to provide funds to the company in proportion to its requirements with immediate effect and also recommended the up-gradation of all regular employees working in Chitral and other powerhouses in the province. The meeting also deliberated in detail on the call attention notice of MPA Najma Shaheen regarding the performance of the Energy Department.
The committee was assured that digging of wells will begin as soon as the company receives the licence from the federal government.

PEDO seeks licence for Karora hydro power project
ISLAMABAD (APP): Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO) has submitted an application to National Electric Power Regulator Authority (Nepra) for power generation license for its proposed 11.80 MW Karora Hydro Power Project. Sources told APP on Friday that PEDO planned to set up a 11.80 MW Run of river hydropower plant at Khan Khwar River Shangla District. The total installed capacity of the plant is 11.80 MW and has two units each of 5.9 MW. The total cost of the project is estimated at Rs3,632.278 million and the length of tunnel will be 2,976 meters with 2.65 meters diameter. The expected commercial operation date of the project is November 30, 2019. PEDO is a public sector organization set up under SHYDO Act 1993 entrusted by the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to develop hydropower projects in the province. PEDO intends to supply the generated electric power from its said project to the national grid.
The power regulator admitted the PEDO application and invited all shakeholders, interested/affected persons and the general public to submit their comments in favor or against the grant of generation licence to PEDO.

Loans recovery grew by 5.17pc: ZTBL

ISLAMABAD (APP): The loans recovery of Zarai Tarqiatie Bank Limited (ZTBL) has witnessed about 5.17 percent growth during the year 2017 as compared the recovery of the same period of last year. The bank had disbursed an ever highest amount of Rs 97.128 billion among 345,131 borrowers across the country including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan , said spokesman of the bank here Friday. Talking to APP he said that an amount of Rs 22.700 billion was disbursed for development category of loans whereas, an amount of Rs 74.429 billion was disbursed as production loans in order to enhance agriculture and livestock production in the country. Meanwhile , he said that the bank recovered an amount of Rs 107.579 billion as compared to Rs 102.281 billion recovered last year showing a growth of 5.17 percent as compared with the recovery of same period last year. Besides, the bank recovered an amount of Rs 1.876 billion of SAM loans, whereas it had fetched deposit of Rs 71.00 billion as on December 31, 2017, the official of added.
He informed that being the largest agriculture lending institute of the country , the bank has successfully maintained the highest credit and entity rating of AAA/A-1+ as evaluated by JCR-VIS.
The spokesman of the bank informed that besides credit disbursement and recovery the bank has also introduced several new initiatives in order to promote agriculture and livestock sector as well as agro related business in the country.
In order to promote the agriculture value addition, the bank has introduced Kissan Assan Karobar Scheme and Financing For Ostrich Farming to promote agriculture related businesses.
To enhance the outreach of the bank 28 new branches have been opened during the year 2017, resultantly total number of branches has been increased to 488 thereby, increasing the outreach of ZTBL and supportive to financial inclusion strategy of SBP, he added.
The bank was also offering its services to domestic consumers and started utility bills collection and it collected 1,506,131 utility bills in the year 2017.