Govt Employees Get Free Electricity Worth Rs. 6,000 Every Month: Energy Minister

Energy Minister Awais Leghari Wednesday revealed that power sector employees receive electricity worth Rs. 6,000 for free every month.   Speaking to journalists in Islamabad, the minister said that the government cannot halt the free electricity for power division and generation company employees for now due to ongoing legal cases.  The minister proposed increasing salaries as a replacement for free electricity and said that the government is working on plan to provide surplus electricity at lower rates.  Speaking about solar net metering, Leghari highlighted that it has resulted in an additional burden of Rs. 103 billion on regular consumers.  The minister said that with increase in solarization, the financial stress on ordinary consumers is growing as the government is forced to buy expensive electricity through net metering.  He said the government aims to ensure that net metering consumers recover their costs within four years while managing the impact on general consumers.