PM’s Fury Forces Member Nepra Tariff  to Resign

Staff Report

Islamabad: Prime Minister’s anger over poor performance and delays in tariff issues had pushed the Member Tariff National Electric Regulatory Authority (Nepra) Mathar Niaz Rana to resign, which has now been accepted.

After facing displeasure from the Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Rana had stepped down just four months before the end of his term, which officials said was unlikely to have been extended over questions raised by several stakeholders on his performance.

Rana, a former federal bureaucrat, was appointed a member of NEPRA on the recommendation of the Balochistan government, where he last served as chief secretary.

He resigned earlier this week without officially citing a reason, a fact not lost on officials and stakeholders of the energy sector.

Government officials say that it does seem off that a former bureaucrat who has long served with various governments would abruptly announce his resignation at a time when the power sector has just begun to offer good news.

Rana’s tenure at NEPRA came at a tumultuous time for Pakistan’s power sector that saw several painstaking decisions being made for the country’s consumers, some in part because of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, but largely because of long-standing delays that plague the country’s bureaucracy.

An example of one such delay happens to be the Muzaffargarh solar energy project whose bids never saw the light of day.electricity bill reduction pakistan

Officials said since 2021 projects including the Muzaffargarh one – which was meant to be a matter of national priority – were delayed because Rana was “unable to make up his mind”.

On the acceptance of resignation and chances of Rana’s extension, officials also indicated that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was displeased with the member tariff’s performance.

Bidding for the Muzaffargarh solar power project first ended on May 31, 2023, but no bidders showed up. At the time, it was claimed that the poor response was because of the low project cost benchmarked by the regulator.

The benchmark tariff was thus removed by the government. However, this round also could not attract even a single bidder despite repeated extensions in bidding deadlines.

It was then granted another one-month extension in deadline on December 10, 2023, but not a single investor submitted a bid. After this, there were no more extensions or corrigendum