You must have heard of prepaid phone cards, but prepaid electricity card? This is something new. The government of Pakistan will introduce prepaid electricity cards that the consumers can uses in addition to their electricity bills. The users will be able to load the prepaid cards as required and then when the card runs out, so will the electricity. Smart meters will also be installed by the government of Pakistan to regulate the amount of electricity consumption per area.
According to Younis Dagha, the secretary of water and electricity, the smart meters will be installed from the coming month and it will take about three years to completely install these meters. Power plants based on LNG will also be used in the next two to three years and they will have the capacity to produce electricity at the rate of PKR 8.80 per unit. This move has been put in place to monitor the theft of electricity. The meters are digitalized and hope to give an accurate recording of electricity consumed.
The public is split in their opinion. Some think that digital meters are much faster than the traditional meters which will automatically increase the bill. Some however are taking this as a positive move and are of the view that this will also discourage the employees within the electricity company as well, as they are also supporting the theft of electricity.