ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: The Water and Power Minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, held a meeting on Saturday to devise a plan to avert power crisis because a shortfall of over 4,000MW is feared in December.

The hydel generation may decline by around 2,000MW per day when releases to cannels will be blocked for cleaning of irrigation water courses.

The minister directed the independent power producers (IPPs) to arrange enough stocks of furnace oil to generate maximum power and do not let supplies suffer from the fall in hydel generation.

The power shortfall may cause six- to 10-hour loadshedding daily next month.

The IPPs will not be ready to generate their full capacity of 6,000MW per day due to financial problems.

Mr Ashraf directed power distribution companies (Discos) to recover outstanding dues of Rs40 billion to Rs50 billion from private consumers till June 30 next year. Private consumers owe Rs70 billion to Discos, which has caused power shortages because distribution companies are not able to pay to producers and oil and gas companies.

Mr Ashraf directed officials of Discos to ensure 100 per cent recovery of electricity dues or face action. He, however, said: “The recovery does not mean that you start overcharging consumers.”

A source said that the minister directed IPPs to purchase enough furnace oil and asked them to stop justifying low generation because crude oil prices in the international market had declined to below $50 a barrel from $147.5 in July.

An official told Dawn Mr Ashraf came down “very hard” on Discos and IPPs officials for showing laxity in recovery of dues and generation of power, respectively.

He said the heads of Discos had no answer when the minister asked them as to why they were still supplying electricity to private defaulters.

Some officials of Discos, however, conveyed their fears to the minister that if they took action against political figures for recovery of dues they might be transferred or even lose jobs.

Mr Ashraf assured them that if they worked honestly nobody would be allowed to put hurdles in their way and immediately banned all kinds of transfers and postings in Discos and Pepco “till further orders”.

He directed chief executive officers of Discos to improve performance by putting their systems in order. He said that there would be no compromise on efficiency and the poor performers would be taken to task.

He directed distribution companies to reduce line losses.