This study analyzes the state led provision of electricity in Pakistan. It examines different aspects of the debate over public provision of this utility, process of tariff determination and the substantial costs associated with the entire system.
The study lays bare those areas in the management of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in Pakistan where through sale and purchase of various fuels, such as in GENCOs, in assigning contracts, such as in generation, transmission and distribution, in determining various tariffs, in structuring subsidies, rents are created, manipulated, distributed; and it shows how and why these rents are not eliminated, and maintained and increased instead. Also, it tells how the mix of state and private entrepreneurs, whom the state has corrupted like itself, is proving fatal to the ordinary citizens’ economic survival. In an ordinary household, the amount of its monthly electricity bill has surpassed the usual amount of the bill of its kitchen, especially during summers.
As one realizes the magnitude of the brazen robbery being commit- ted by the state, and in fact by the politicians who rule, one shudders what’s happening in Pakistan! Also, that explains how a private good when transformed into a political good may play havoc with the survival of the ordinary citizens on the one hand, and on the other how it empowers the state, i.e. politicians who rule, to rob the citizens at its will. Not only is determined the tariff of electricity arbitrarily, the costs of mismanagement, inefficiency, corruption, and new projects and then in case of delays of these projects their increased cost also come to the share of the consumers.