The federal government has initiated to form the national contingency energy-saving plan. According to the details, the government wants to form a strategy that will stabilise the economy, conserve energy and most importantly bring down the overall import bill of Pakistan. The plan has been approved by the Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar, in a high-command meeting. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif presided over the meeting, and the strategy would now be presented to the cabinet for final approval.
Reports suggest that a crackdown will be carried out against electricity theft, and several buildings of government and the private sector will be converted to solar power. Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said that government would invite chief ministers of all provinces so that the plan could be implemented in collaboration. She also pointed out that the energy-saving plan would reduce the import bill. However, the stats she proposed seemed to be flawed.
Marriyum Aurangzeb claimed that the annual import bill of Pakistan is $29 billion (6 trillion Rupees), and with the help of the energy-saving plan, the country will save Rs262 billion. But, in the previous fiscal year, the import bill of Pakistan had surged by over $80 billion. In that case, saving Rs262 billion only reduces $1.2 billion from the import bill.