Rs5b free electricity supplied to Discos staff.

ISLAMABAD -- The Senate Standing Committee on Energy was informed on Tuesday that free of cost electricity worth more than Rs5 billion had been supplied to the staff of distribution companies during the last one year.

The senate panel, which met under the chairmanship of Senator Fida Muhammad, was told that 198,000 officers and employees of distribution companies had been supplied more than 290 million units of electricity during the past one year - cost of which is more than Rs5.26 billion.

The committee stressed on the need to introduce a new formula for the provision of free electricity units to the staff of Wapda.

The chairman directed the ministry to review the facility and present different options in the next meeting so that alternative facilities could be offered.

The National Transmission Dispatch Company (NTDC) also briefed the committee on the projects completed during 2010-2019 and apprised the body of the issues related to transmission.

The committee members stressed on the departments concerned to address the issues faced by the people due to load shedding.

The panel maintained that load shedding could be reduced through with the use of modern systems and electronic devices.

Senator Noman Wazir pointed out that technology used for manufacturing fans in Pakistan had been out-dated.

He said that fans assembled in the country used 130 watts while in other parts of the world they utilised 25-30 watts.

The senator emphasised that the adoption of the new technology could save thousands of megawatts of...