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Pakistan to press Chinese utilities in Pakistan to change to domestic coal

Pakistan this month will ask Chinese power plants operating in the country to move to utilizing coal from Pakistan's Thar area rather than imported coal, the power minister stated on Sunday.

Islamabad might also start talks on re-profiling Pakistan's. energy sector debt during the visit to Beijing, Awais Leghari,. head of the energy ministry's Power Department, told .

Leghari will be part of the delegation to go over structural. reforms to the power sector suggested by the International. Monetary Fund (IMF), which recently agreed on a $7 billion. bailout for the greatly indebted South Asian nation.

Neighbouring China has actually established over $20 billion worth of. energy jobs in Pakistan.

One of the essential functions of going along is the conversion of. our imported coal units to the regional coal. That would have a. huge effect on the cost of energy, of power in the near future. So that is among the biggest (items on the) program, Leghari. stated in an interview.

Such a shift would benefit the Chinese-owned plants in. Pakistan by minimizing pressure on Islamabad's forex. reserves, he stated, making it simpler to repatriate dividends and. using a better return in dollar terms.

The shift could save Pakistan more than 200 billion. Pakistani rupees ($ 700 million) a year in imports, translating. to a decline of as much as 2.5 Pakistani rupees per system in the. cost of electricity, Leghari stated.

In April a subsidiary of corporation Engro. agreed to sell all of its thermal properties, including Pakistan's. leading coal producer, Sindh Engro Coal Mining to Pakistan's. Liberty Power. Liberty said the choice stemmed from Pakistan's. forex crunch and its native coal reserve. capacity.

The minister decreased to elaborate on the possible talks. with China over re-profiling energy debt.

Pakistan's power sector has been afflicted by high rates of. power theft and distribution losses, resulting in accumulating. financial obligation across the production chain - an issue raised by the IMF.

The government is implementing structural reforms to lower. circular financial obligation - public liabilities that build up in the power. sector due to subsidies and overdue costs - by 100 billion. Pakistani rupees ($ 360 million) a year, Leghari said.

Poor and middle-class households have been impacted by a. previous IMF bailout reached last year, that included raising. power tariffs as part of the financing programme that ended in. April.

Annual power use in Pakistan is anticipated to fall. consecutively for the first time in 16 years as higher tariffs. curb household usage, despite summertime temperature levels rising. to near records, which usually boosts air conditioning and fan. use.

We have seen a diminishing demand pattern in the past year or. year and a half, and we are expecting this to continue unless we. rationalize the rate of power, Leghari said, including that the. federal government's significant obstacle was get demand to stop shrinking.

He stated that given that the per-unit tariff for power is more. expensive, both urban and rural households are moving towards. options such as solar.

Right now we have near 1,000 megawatts that are on the. grid itself in the kind of net metering systems and others. It's. an extremely conservative estimate that

(source: Reuters)