The International Monetary Fund has approved parts of the government’s proposals to provide relief in electricity bills, sources said on Thursday.
The sources said that the government had once again made contact with the IMF recently. However, the latter rejected the government’s proposal for relief for consumers using up to 400 units of electricity.
The Fund did approve some relief for people using up to 200 units of electricity and said that consumers in the bracket should be allowed to pay their bills in installments.
The measure is expected to bring relief to around four million consumers across the country. Government sources said that the approval of the 400 unit proposal would have increased the number of people receiving relief to 32 million.
However, the IMF has pressed the government to crack down on electricity theft and improve bill recoveries. The Fund has also asked the government to increase gas tariff by 45 to 50 percent. However, the increase is linked to cabinet approval.
The government has been scrambling to find solutions after protests erupted across the country against high electricity bills. However, the government has had to walk a tightrope between providing relief to consumers while staying in the confines of an IMF program which was signed after much effort by the previous government.
The IMF had rejected the government’s initial proposal saying that it would cause a loss of around Rs 15 billion in revenue. The government had claimed that no more than Rs 6 billion would be lost.
