Islamabad: The government is set to announce a comprehensive National Solar Policy on August 1 to provide cheap and environmental-friendly electricity to the general public.

The decision was taken by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as he chaired a high-level meeting of the Energy Task Force aimed at addressing the problems of energy shortage in the country.

The implementation of the National Solar Policy will be subject to approval by the Council of Common Interests.

The meeting was attended by Federal Minister for Energy Engineer Khurram Dastagir, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, Petroleum Minister Mussadik Malik, and the officials concerned. The chief secretaries of four provinces joined the meeting through a video link.

PM Sharif directed the task force to get feedback from the provinces on the draft solar policy and stressed ensuring unanimity of views at the provincial level on the projects of alternative energy generation.

Also, it was decided to shift the Prime Minister’s Office and the PM House to solar energy within one month.

The prime minister said the government was committed to making the country self-reliant in energy generation.

He mentioned that solar power was a clean and green way of electricity generation and said the solar projects would mitigate the issues such as distribution losses, power theft, and circular debt.

PM Sharif said affordable solar power would reduce the burden of inflation on the common man.

The meeting was informed that a proposal for converting the fuel-based powerhouses and the 2,000 feeders of 11 KV to solar generation was on the cards.

Switching the government buildings to solar power generation was also discussed in detail.

It was told that in the next 10 years, solar plants with 1,000 megawatts generation would be installed at the government buildings on a BOOT (Build-Own-Operate-Transfer) basis.

The meeting also discussed the proposals for B2B (business-to-business) and mini solar grids.

It was highlighted that a plan to convert 30,000 tube wells in Balochistan to solar power was under consideration with a cost of Rs 300 billion.

The meeting also discussed the proposal to provide solar plants to individuals with a facility of net-metering.

Islamabad: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Thursday notified Rs7.90 per unit increase in power tariff.

The increase in electricity prices by NEPRA was made in the context of the fuel adjustment for the month of May which will be collected in next month's bills. The people will be burdened with more than Rs 113 billion.

The increase will put an additional burden of Rs113 billion on the consumers of 10 power distribution companies. 

However, the notification will not apply to lifeline and Karachi-Electric (KE) consumers.  

Lahore: Pakistan Test squad’s support personnel Malang Ali tested positive for Covid-19, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) informed on Thursday.

The squad arrived in Colombo on Wednesday evening at 6:00pm Pakistan time.

The team official confirmed that Malang tested positive for Covid-19 in the on-arrival Rapid Antigen test.

The masseur will now undergo five-day isolation and will be allowed to come out of isolation upon returning a negative RAT test on the fifth day, he added.

Pakistan will play a three-day warm-up match between 11-13 July. The first Test will be played at Galle from 16 July, while the second Test will be staged at Colombo from 24 July.