Electricity prices increased due to previous governments: Omar Ayub

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Minister for Power Omer Ayub said on Wednesday said that the electricity prices increased due to the previous governments. He said while addressing along with Special Assistant on Petroleum Nadeem Babar at a news conference, he said that during the PML-N tenure the electricity generation became as expensive as Rs 17 per unit, the minister said. The minister announced that the government has approved renewable energy policy 2019 with the aim to produce cheap and clean energy by using indigenous resources. He was confident that generation from renewable sources will help bring down the power tariff in future. He regretted that the PML-N installed expensive power through the LNG plants. Giving the targets set in the policy, Omer Ayub said that eight thousand megawatts of power will be produced from renewable sources including solar and wind by 2025 and twenty thousand megawatts by 2030. He said that this does not include the hydel generation and if it is also included the share of clean and green energy will be sixty to sixty five percent. Omer Ayub said that under this policy, manufacturing of solar panels and wind turbines will also be locally manufactured. This, he said, will give a major boost to the industrial base in the country. The minister for Power said there is potential of forty billion dollars investment in the country's renewable sources and some companies have already started invested in it. Danish, Japanese and Chinese companies have expressed interest to invest in the manufacturing of solar panels and wind turbines. On the occasion, Nadeem Babar said that this is a forward looking and progressive policy which has been prepared after consultations with all the stakeholders including the provinces. He said under this policy, contracts will be awarded through a transparent open bidding.