Over Rs. 64 bln collected under Neelum Jhelum surcharge so far: Senate told

ISLAMABAD, May 03 (APP):Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Khan Swati on Friday said a sum of over Rs 64 billion has been collected under Neelum Jhelum surcharge so far.

Replying to various questions during question hour, the minister said the government approved the levy of Neelum Jhelum Surcharge at the achievement of Commercial Operation Date (COD) of the whole project, expected by June 30, 2019.

He said Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project had been substantially completed with all the four units in commercial operation. Over 2, 400 GWh energy had been inducted into National Grid upto April 11,2019, he said.

To another question, the minister said the government was working for development of small, medium and large water storage reservoirs in the country.

During last ten years, the 4.557 MAF storage capacity had been added in the system by completing various dams including Mangla Raising project, Gomal Zam, Satpara, Darawat, Mirani and Sabakzai dams etc.

Moreover, he said with regard to large reservoirs, the government was acquiring the land for construction of Diamer Basha Dam having usable storage capacity of 6.4 MAF. So far 85 percent land had been acquired, he added.

He said in order to start the construction. Rs. 23,680.350 million had been allocated in PSDP 2018-19. Moreover, Rs. 2,000 million had also been allocated for starting construction of Mohmand Dam Hydropower Project having usable storage capacity of 0.676 MAF, he added.

To a separate question, Azam Swati said Khyber-Pakhankhwa owed only Rs37 billion under net hydel profit and efforts were being made to clear the remaining amount.

He said Committee (headed by Mr. A.G.N Kazi the then Dy. Chairman Planning Commission) developed a methodology called Kazi Committee Methodogly (KCM) for working out net hydel profit (NHP) payable to the provinces, which was approved by the CCI in 1991.

However, there were certain fundamental defects embedded in the internal structure of the A.G.N. Kazi Committee Report which rendered it unconstitutional and also gave rise to the conflicting claims and different interpretations by GoKP and WAPDA due to which the KCM could not be implemented, he said.

Azam Swati said the difficulties inherent in the KCM were compounded after unbundling of WAPDA into 13 separate distribution, transmission and generation companies.

After granting license to WAPDA, NEPRA included annual NHP of Rs. 6 billion for GoKP after soliciting clarification of Ministry of Finance.

This amount was allowed by NEPRA upto FY 2014-15 and WAPDA regularly paid NHP to GoKP after making recovery through its tariff, he said and added that subsequently, on the demand of GoKP and as per decision of the GoP, the NHP was uncapped by NEPRA @ 1.10 per / kWh.