Economy
 
Energy Crisis hampering Growth
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Visits 626
February 24, 2012
International Monetary Fund in its report on Pakistan while expressing fears of economic slowdown, increase in government expenditure, lagging behind in health and education sectors from neighboring country and increase in unemployment also has indicated that Pakistan’s economy is suffering due to load shedding in the country and by ending subsidy on electricity the problems could be minimized.

Monetary agencies like IMF often use tough language which does not sit well with the political and public circles. Often the suggestions given by such organizations become a source of burden on the common man. The real purpose behind the use of tough language by these organizations is to help the concerned countries to improve their economy.

When any country is spending more money for one unit of production of electricity and receiving less amount from consumers than its simple that loss must be tolerated in electricity sector. This deficit is overcome by the government. Usually the elected governments are cognizance of the public problems and tend to strike a balance between problems of the people and country’s economy.

The government although had rejected the IMF reports and termed it as misleading but we cannot turn away from the reality that load shedding has affected every sector of this country. Due to this a large section of the public is suffering from inflation and unemployment. The gas crisis has further multiplied the problems. Due to the gas crisis the power houses and factories are adversely affected. The rates of transport have increased and the housewives face much problems in lightening the stove. The riots of the public against power and gas outages are creating a law and order situation, traffic is disturbed.

As soon as the winter season started the public was hit by gas crisis and the domestic consumers were the worst sufferers. Due to the outcry by the public, the government without thinking about the consequences restricted the gas supply to CNG stations and factories and also increased the gas fares. This step although provided no benefit to the domestic consumer but increased the problems of industries and public transport. Factories were closed down due to which daily wagers have gone unemployed. Due to unavailability of CNG the public transport has been badly affected and the people have been deprived of cheap transportation. Due to power shortage, in Lahore nearly 400 and in Faisalabad 600 factories have been closed. The situation in Karachi is no different. According to an estimate nearly 3.5 million vehicles in the country are running on CNG out of this large number are public transport. Provision of CNG to such a large number of vehicles could have been feasible only if the country had enough supply of gas. Pakistan is the only country in which such a large amount of vehicles are running on gas. Whoever thought of this plan never thought of its consequences in the long run as how we would produce such a large amount of gas. Now as the gas crisis have intensified, the government in order to discourage the use of gas has raised the prices of CNG and have brought it in par to the rates of petrol.

The problems we are facing today are due to the ill policies of the previous regimes, who never thought of the future. In today’s era no country can gain economic stability without having energy resources. In Pakistan till cheapest power such as pin electricity was available in Pakistan to fulfill the needs of the public our economy was also stable as compared to other countries of the region.

Due to negligence in accepting India’s rights over waters of Ravi and Sutlaj and non construction of dams other than Tarbela and Mangla we cut our hands and thus are facing the shortages of two most important natural resources. China and India including other countries by making banks on rivers, canals have fulfilled their needs of electricity through hydro power. Unfortunately our planners have chose to ignore alternate means of electricity.

God has given our country many natural resources such as abundant sun and wind, which can be used to produce alternate energy but we have chosen not to utilize these natural resources. Even despite having abundance of thar coal resources we will not be able to use this utility for many decades. Due to our weak policies we are now lagging behind and many countries of South Asia have economically left us behind. Their economies are much stronger than ours.

Pakistan is not blessed with large reserves of oil and the opportunity for the hydroelectric potential is confined to the northern region of the country. However, large deposits of coal were discovered at Thar over a decade ago by the Sindh Arid Zone Development Authority. In 1991, enormous coal deposits were conferred by the Geological Survey of Pakistan and the United States Agency for International Development.

Pakistan's Thar Desert contains the largest coal reserves discovered to date, covering an area of 10,000 square kilometers. The Thar Coal Field, should it be developed, will yield over 200 billion ton of coal used to produce electricity, it will yield sufficient power to make Pakistan self-sufficient in Electrical power.

There is an encouraging sign that the present government is making efforts to get gas from Turkmenistan, Iran, Qatar and Russia to meet the energy needs of the country and is also paying attention to projects of getting electricity and gas from Thar Coal reserves to meet the needs of the energy sector.

Judging by the efforts it seems that the present government by the end of their tenure would be able to make a base, making it easier for the coming governments to deal with the power and gas crisis. If we start working on projects utilizing our natural resources to get cheap electricity from alternate resources than there would be no load shedding and neither our economy would have to face irreparable loss. We have everything, just need to utilize our technical resources. World is moving fast and in order to stay with the fast emerging technologies we need to gear up our efforts.

If all the oil Reserves of Saudia Arabia & Iran are put together it is approximately 375 Billion Barrels ,but a Single Thar Coal Reserve Of Sindh is about 850 Trillion Cubic Feet, which is More Than Oil Reserves Of Saudia & Iran.

These reserves estimated at 850 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas, about 30 times higher than Pakistan’s proven gas reserves of 28 TCF.

These reserves of coal worth USD 25 trillion can not only cater the electricity requirements of the country for next 100 years but also save almost four billion dollars in staggering oil import bill.

Just 2% usage of Thar Coal Can Produce 20,000 Mega Watts of Electricity for next 40Years ,without any single Second of Load Shedding and if the whole reserves are utilized, then it could easily be imagined how much energy could be generated.

The coal power generation would cost Pakistan PKR 5.67 per unit while power generated by Independent Power Projects cost PKR 9.27. It Requires Just Initial 420 Billion Rupees Initial Investment,

Whereas Pakistan Receives annually 1220 Billion from Tax Only. Chinese and other companies had not only carried out surveys and feasibilities of this project but also offered 100 percent investment in last 7 to 8 years but the “Petroleum Gang” always discouraged them in a very systematic way

The government has failed to overcome gas and power crisis due to which load shedding is increasing day by day. Industries are facing closures and external trade is facing deficit and foreign reserves are depleting. The energy crisis has also dampened the agriculture sector, which is the back bone of the country’s economy. In the current situation, resolution of energy crisis is not a job of a single minister a debate on the crisis needs to be held in the parliament. The cabinet should take practical decisions and should avoid decisions that could create confrontations amongst the provinces. We have to make decisive decisions to get the economic wheel rolling and save the economy from complete meltdown.

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