ISLAMABAD:
Parliamentarians and even authorities officers within the Nationwide Meeting Standing Committee on Industries and Manufacturing on Monday denounced the change in photo voltaic internet metering coverage by the Nationwide Electrical Energy Regulatory Authority (Nepra).
The committee met below the chairmanship of Syed Hafeezuddin, who raised the problem of amendments to the online metering coverage because the regulator has now shifted to internet billing.
“This coverage modification may have critical implications for the general popularity of the federal government,” Hafeezuddin cautioned, including “when the regulator can honour the commitments made to the IPPs (impartial energy producers), it also needs to respect the response from industries and people to the online metering coverage.” He identified that industrial models had opted for the online metering coverage by investing in solar energy programs “however now they’ve been left in confusion.”
Members of the standing committee and even secretary industries expressed concern that the transfer would shatter the belief of traders in authorities insurance policies in addition to push industries away from embracing new power applied sciences. The committee famous that the premise utilized by Nepra to change from internet metering to internet billing was primarily based with none rational research by the Ministry of Vitality (Energy Division).
“Pakistan wanted to advertise photo voltaic and different clear power sources for industries; it’s going to additionally assist scale back the price of doing enterprise in the long term,” Hafeezuddin remarked.
The important thing agenda of the huddle was to evaluation and approve the continued improvement tasks below numerous departments of the Ministry of Industries and Manufacturing. Following a rigorous scrutiny, the committee rejected numerous tasks and sought a monitoring report from the Planning Fee.
Members of the NA committee had been dismayed by the delay in completion and escalating prices of a lot of the tasks. “I do know and I perceive that Covid and greenback crises and the change in authorities had some influence in all issues,” Dr Mehreen Bhutto stated. “However all tasks have been delayed by six to 9 years and the briefs given to us are all the time incomplete.”
Panel members together with Abdul Hakeem Baloch and Shahid Usman dismissed the claims made by the departments working below the Ministry of Industries relating to scores of improvement tasks.
Discussing the tasks being executed in Hub (Balochistan) and Karachi, the committee chairman admonished related officers, saying that he had visited these areas the place the bottom actuality was completely different.
Whereas Shahid Usman had a distinct image of tasks in Gujranwala, Mehreen Bhutto highlighted that the briefs offered to the committee lacked fundamental particulars. “There isn’t any point out of rupees in hundreds of thousands or billions within the transient; particulars are incomplete,” she stated.
Committee members famous that departments go for new buildings and buy of land for tasks as a substitute of utilizing the land of non-functioning state-owned enterprises (SOEs). “It’s comprehensible why SOEs are making losses,” Hafeezuddin stated.
The committee additionally mentioned the case of a former worker of the Engineering Growth Board (EDB), Engineer KB Ali, who was transferred again to his mum or dad division however he later approached the court docket of legislation and obtained a keep order.
Prosumer guidelines: NEPRA seeks feedback
In the meantime, Nepra invited public feedback on a proposed modification to the not too long ago notified Nepra (Prosumer) Rules, 2026, aiming to make clear and doubtlessly giving billing safety to present distributed turbines below the previous internet metering framework.
In a draft notification printed below Part 47(3) of the Regulation of Technology, Transmission and Distribution of Electrical Energy Act, 1997, Nepra is looking for stakeholder enter on revising sub-regulation (2) of Regulation 21 inside a month.
The proposed change would substitute the present provision to state that approvals, licences, concurrences and agreements executed below the repealed rules (the 2015 internet metering guidelines) stay unaffected. The prevailing distributed turbines with legitimate agreements would proceed billing below the charges and mechanisms of these repealed rules till their settlement phrases expire.
A key proviso deems the modification retroactive, efficient from February 9, 2026, the date the Prosumer Rules had been initially notified, making certain it “shall all the time be deemed to have had impact accordingly.”
