The Government on Wednesday officially announced the Alternative and Renewable Energy (ARE) Policy 2020 that offersplentiful tax facilities to investorsand guarantees induction of power plants on open competitive bidding for lowest tariff and technology transfer.

Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry with Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan disclosed the strategy in a news conference, which was approved in a recent meeting of the Council of Common Interests. The meeting decided to increase share of ARE in total power supply to 20 per cent by 2025 and 30pc by 2030 from about 5pc at present.

He said hydropower will also be ready to work as an ARE class category under which its share would increase to 60pc of power generation by 2030. Combined with Thar coal and nuclear power, the total shareof power generation from indigenous sources would arrive at 75pc, he said.

Mr Khan believed the induction of power plants on open competitive bidding would cut down solar and wind tariff to under four pennies for every unit and eventually advantage the business and domestic investmentin localization of solar panels, wind turbines and related equipment and material.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Petroleum Nadeem Babar highlighted multiple features of ARE that were different from past policies. One is that it would be lowest in its cost. Second, there would be a meeting on annual or three-years terms, in which Federal government would decide the allocation of energy as per the requirement of the regions in the presence of all provinces, Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Third is its low tariff which would motivate the local entrepreneurs to work in this sector.

He said that the custom duty will also be exempted on the import of equipment, machinery and manufacturing material. According to FawadChaudaryChinese companies were interested in relocation of their factories to Pakistan because of US-China trade war and the country was set to take a major benefit in the shape of manufacturing growth.

Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) has decided to update the profile of ‘Professional’ and ‘Registered Engineers’ to update their profile. PEC will publish the list of registered engineers on its website (pec.org.pk). Engineers are advised to visit profile update portal (profileupdate.pec.org.pk) and update their profile along-with scanned copy of their valid CNIC.

Engineers are also instructed to renew their membership by paying Rs. 1,000/- valid upto 31 Dec 2020. Whereas, those engineers who have subscribed lifetimemembership but do not have card are also requested to apply for a card which is free of cost. For further details please visit the PEC website (www.pec.org.pk). 

The Board of Directors of Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MPCL) on Monday appointed Faheem Haider as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company.

“We would like to inform that the Board in its meeting held today has approved the appointment of Faheem Haider as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Mari Petroleum Company Limited with effect from August 12, 2020,” MPCL announced the decision in its filing to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

Whereas, Lt. Gen. Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmad (Retd) was performing the duty of CEO of MPCL before Faheem Haider.

Faheem Haider is a Petroleum Engineer and also capable to handle core E&P operations in different parts of the world with the experience of more than 27 years. He has also the experience of JV management, business development, strategy and growth delivery, operational efficiency, cost leadership, and stakeholders’ management.

Faheem Haider has got a Post-Graduate Diploma from the College of Petroleum Studies, Oxford UK, an MSc. Degree in Petroleum Engineering & Production Management from Imperial College London, and BSc. Degree in Petroleum Engineering from UET Lahore.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) gave the approval to improve the vital Mainline-1 railway track. The committee estimated the cost of the project which is around Rs1.137 trillion.

Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, the advice of the Prime Minister of finance and revenue, took the decision while presiding the meeting of the committee on Wednesday.

The committee also gave its approval to three other development projects, with a total estimated cost of Rs114 billion.

Whereas Ecnec also working on the project on the establishment of a dry port near Havelian which cost is estimated $6.807bn on cost-sharing basis between the governments of China and Pakistan, in which Chinese bank will provide 90pc of the cost of the project. And the remaining amount will be borne by the federal government. The 59pc amount of the project, i.e. Rs672bn will be spent on local material, equipment and labour costs while machinery and equipment worth is $2.7bn.

The project is divided into three phases. So as to maintain a strategic distance from responsibility charges, the credit sum for each bundle will be independently contracted.

Under this general undertaking, the current 2,655km track will be updated, said an official statement. The speed of passenger trains will increase from 65-110 kilometres for every hour to 165km every hour and line limit will increment from 34 to 137/171 trains each way per day.

A restructuring plan for Pakistan Railways has additionally been affirmed by the prime minister.

In June this year, the Central Development Working Party had suggested the project cost at $7.2bn and referred it to Ecnec for endorsement. But, the Planning Commission said on Tuesday the estimated cost referred to Ecnec for endorsement was $6.8bn. This is because of termination of the line at Peshawar instead of the earlier proposal of extending it to Torkham. The Karachi-Hyderabad section will be built on commercial lines under PPP mode. The ML-1 is a high-priority project of the government irrespective of the political divide.

The project stayed under discussion in light of its enormous budgetary effect, the US opposition to Chinese interests in Pakistan and limitations of the government under the debt sustainability perspective of the IMF.

Prime Minsiter Imran took a decision to set up e-Khidmat Centers and a web portal to facilitate the builders in a meeting of the National Coordination Commit­tee on Housing, Construction and Development (NCCHCD) on Thursday. The step was taken to encourage the builders and developers and also to create a friendly environment for the to start project in the construction sector.

Prime Minister was assured by some of the renown builders that there would be the start of new projects which will trigger the economic activity of more than a trillion rupees in all over country till the end of the running year.

In meeting Prime Minister also examined the feature of the web portal established by the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments to provide an online platform for no-objection certificates (NOCs) and official permission needed to start development activities.

Prime Minister is hopeful that the web portal will offer the digital solutions to the builders, minimising human interferences and ensuring expeditious processing of applications within the stipulated timeline.