Islamabad, May 23: Pakistan Government is mulling over the option on cutting down the number of working days in a week an effort to save fuel, Dawn reported on Monday.
The Pakistan Government has come to this decision amid rising oil consumption and import bill which is being caused by higher international prices of oil.
This is one way the Government is trying to conserve fuel. It also hopes to save an estimated annual foreign exchange of up to $2.7 billion. The estimates are based on three different scenarios in terms of working days and fuel conservation prepared by the State Bank of Pakistan to save the country’s foreign exchange to the tune of $1.5bn to 2.7bn.
In the first case scenarios involves four working days and three holidays in which retail is open like a weekend, the average POL saving is estimated at $122m a month adding up to $1.5bn a year.
It may be noted that 90 per cent of oil consumption is assumed for working days and the remaining 10 per cent for holiday in a month.
The second case scenario involves four working days, two holidays and one day of lockdown (retail to remain closed for one day), will result in saving in the shape of reduced oil import of around $175m a month which adds up to $2.1bn a year.
The third scenario involves four working days, one holiday and two days of lockdown (commercial activities to remain off for two days), will bring about the POL saving in import bill to around $230m or about $2.7bn. This case, however, is considered too harsh as it could negatively affect public confidence.
Report said that the Power Division had advised the new government soon after it came to office to go for reduced working days and limit commercial activities to daylight and launch a national energy conservation drive across the energy consumption sectors with electricity saving of more than 5000MW. (UNI)
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