Two weekly holidays approved to save energy

[LRE]

Two weekly holidays approved to save energy



Federal govt wants to consult Punjab before issuing notification

Sunday, August 31, 2008
By Mehtab Haider

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has approved, in principle, to grant two weekly holidays but decided to withhold formal notification in this regard to consult the Punjab government before making it public, it is learnt reliably.

A situation similar to the decade of 90s is emerging as PPP-led government holds the central government while PML-N is on the driving seat in Punjab the biggest province. There is growing feeling within the bureaucracy that the federal government feels itself squeezed to Islamabad only where it requires consent of Punjab for taking decisions and in this case the granting of two weekly holidays.

“Where is the writ of the federal government,” a federal secretary said while quoting the decision taken in the last federal cabinet meeting in which two weekly holidays were approved in principle but the government preferred not to make it public before seeking approval of Punjab.

The sources said that when the Information Minister, Sherry Rehman, was going to address the press conference after the last cabinet meeting, she was barred to make this decision public as the government wanted to consult with Punjab on it before announcing it.

This correspondent made several attempts to contact the Federal Information Minister for seeking her comments but there was no reply from her mobile phone. Some reports are suggesting that the Punjab government has shown its reluctance for granting two weekly holidays but the federal government has not yet received any formal decision from PML (N) led government of the province.

The sources said that there was no harm in consulting Punjab but it should have been done before taking approval of the federal cabinet. “Once the cabinet has approved two weekly holidays, there is no justification to put formal notification on hold,” added the sources.

The government has approved two holidays in week owing to balance of payment difficulties in the wake of growing import bill. Will the Punjab government look after the Balance of Payment (BoP) difficulties, the sources questioned?

Pakistan’s foreign currency reserves are depleting rapidly and touched $9.129 billion on Friday, resulting into growing vulnerabilities of Islamabad for meeting its requirements on import bill after every passing day.

Although, the government has taken several steps to reduce its import bill in shape of imposing regulatory duty in the range of 15 to 50 per cent as well as imposing restriction of cash margin on opening up Letter of Credit (L/C), which would help to reduce the import bill in the range of over $1 billion during the current fiscal year.

The major factor of growing import bill is unprecedented surge in prices of POL products in the international market. The government has estimated that the oil import bill is set to surge over $14.5 billion in the current fiscal year.

The WAPDA, the sources said, has estimated that two weekly holidays could help save 850 MW to 1000 MW electricity with the closure of all government offices from 9 am to 5 pm on Saturday.

The government is considering various options to ensure conservation of energy resources amid soaring oil prices and electricity shortages.The sources said that the corporate sector was already doing five-day work and other private offices did not contribute a lot in terms of consuming the major chunk of the electricity by working on Saturday.

When the source was asked about the government’s plan to import one million energy bulbs for saving electricity, they said that some people were estimating conservation of the electricity in the range of 500-600 MW but according to WAPDA the energy saver bulbs can help save 225 MW.

“The energy saving of 225 MW is great contribution. Installing new power generation for up to the same level requires investment of $500 million,” the official said.According to WAPDA estimates, the sources said, the government could save 600 MW to 800 MW electricity by ensuring that all shops and bazaars close down by 8 pm every day.

In the wake of lingering energy crisis, Pakistan can save up to $3 billion in its annual oil import bill by implementing an effective energy conservation plan. According to the official estimates prepared by the ministries concerned, the industrial, agriculture, transportation sectors, residential areas etc are wasting energy worth $3 billion per annum.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=132882