STAFF REPORTER
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has expressed reservations over the federal government’s proposed Competitive Trading Bilateral Contract Market (CTBCM) framework, calling it an attempt to reduce the potential of the province’s natural hydropower resources and saying that provincial governments were not taken on board during the design of the framework. The proposed framework could become a major obstacle in the way of the province’s long-term energy projects, so the federal government should review its decisions. In this context, in order to clarify the provincial government’s position and concerns, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government convened a consultative meeting with the help of ISMO, which was led by Executive Director Umar Haroon Malik. The meeting was held at PEDO House, Peshawar. Senior officials of PEDO, representatives of FF Steel Peshawar, Bestway Cement Hattar, Industries Department and KP Board of Investment and Trade (KP-BOIT), provincial government, attended the meeting. Moreover, during the session, provincial officials expressed their deep concerns over the revised CTBCM framework. On this occasion, Special Assistant to Chief Minister KP on Energy Engineer Tariq Sadozai said that after the NEPRA determined wheeling charges of Rs 2.1 per kW from the 18 MW Pehur Power Plant in the wetting model, the distribution companies had demanded Rs. 28 per kW after the injunction because they were afraid of losing their customers. Tariq Sadozai further said that new CTBCM framework is following the same pattern of discouraging the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s energy projects by proposing a new pricing setup that involves multiple pricing charges, including cross-subsidies, financial charges and additional federal capacity, which potentially make a competitive market unfeasible.
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