ISLAMABAD: The Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) has refused to give a subsidised power tariff to the Gwadar port area, saying only the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) could reduce the tariff.
“WAPDA has rejected the Gwadar Implementation Committee’s (GIC) demand, saying that it cannot subsidise the power tariff to Gwadar Port area,” a source told Daily Times.
The GIC, which met on March 16 in Islamabad, demanded that WAPDA should subsidise power tariff for the Gwadar port area as neighbouring states Oman and Muscat had subsidised power tariff for their ports. “The GIC said that subsidised power tariff for shipping facilities is imperative to compete with other ports,” the source said. WAPDA said that it was currently giving 5 megawatts of electricity at bulk supply rates as determined by NEPRA. However, WAPDA had promised to improve power supply, saying that it could offer Iranian electricity to Gwadar, which it was importing from Iran for Balochistan for Rs 1.80 per unit, the source said. WAPDA said that outage ratio in the Iranian electricity was very high which could harm the port business. “It is better to install a thermal power plant in Gwadar to meet its power needs, which will rise to 30 megawatts by 2010,” it said.
Source: Daily Times
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