KARACHI   -  Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Gen­eral Secretary Iqbal Hashmi while ex­pressing concern over solar net meter­ing rate policy of National Electricity Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) said it will sabotage the efforts of She­hbaz Sharif government to promote so­lar energy in the country.

He said the move of NEPRA to amend the Distributed Generation and Net Metering Regulations, 2015 to reduce payment for distributor generator of net metering by almost 30pc would surely sabotage the incumbent govern­ment’s plan of increasing the share of renewable energy in the overall ener­gy mix. He said instead of incentivizing the induction of renewable energy into expensive imported fuel based thermal generation system, NEPRA is trying to demotivate the existing as well as the prospective net metering aspirants. 

He said cut in net metering tariff will be detrimental for the expansion of re­newable energy in the country. In the net metering the government has noth­ing to lose but only gains and on the other hand on the commercial gener­ation the government makes several commitments to the investors. 

Eng Iqbal Hashmi said that solar ener­gy is the future of Pakistan. He said all-out efforts are needed to make the solar pol­icy of the federal government a big suc­cess. He said solar panels should be given to the poor masses through commercial banks on easy instalments with zero in­terest. He said all government buildings should be solarized besides streetlights in every nook and corner of the country. 

He said that Pakistan is amongst the countries with maximum sunlight avail­able round a year. He said it would be our bad luck if we fail to tap this im­mense solar energy potential. He said not only the federal government but the provincial governments should also take steps to promote solar energy. He asked to ensure that NEPRA also promotes so­lar energy instead of creating hurdles.

He said big mafias are running elec­tricity and oil sector and that want to make the government engaged to im­port more and more fossil fuels to en­sure their huge profits. He said the whole world is going to clean renew­al energy, adding Germany has already fully diverted on renewal energy. He said before the world slaps penalties on air pollution in Pakistan we should go for solar and wind energy.