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Power ministry urges reforms

The power ministry has recommended on Tuesday that giving priority to reforms in the energy distribution sector to curb transmission and distribution losses and attract private investment, is the need of the hour, a government official said.

"We suggested (to the federal cabinet) that reforms are urgently required or things could go wrong," said the official who did not wish to be identified

"On reforms, we said the key thing is distribution wherein lies the solution to the problems of the power sector," he said.

He said that the ministry recommended that generation and distribution in a region be given to one company to avoid problems of payments for power purchases.

The ministry's proposals were made at a meeting of the federal cabinet earlier on Tuesday.

The ministry told the cabinet that the losses of the state electricity boards had mushroomed to Rs 144.6 billion in 1998/99 from Rs 31.40 billion in 1991/92.

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