Pakistan's Solar Chariot

The romance between Pakistan and solar energy has encountered a bump in the road, but worry not—talk of a solar tax is really an illusion. The reality is much more subtle, a heavenly ballet of modifications to guarantee that our solar chariot keeps going up in glory. Brilliantly, the 2017 Net Metering Policy allowed residents to capture solar energy, converting their rooftops into small-scale power plants and reducing their electricity costs. Pakistan aimed to achieve 1,920MW of rooftop solar capacity by 2026, according to its latest Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan. However, this target was surpassed in 2023, if not earlier. However, as each beam of sunlight was captured, a secret cosmic eddy emerged. But the apple of discord in our energy sector is the contracts made with international IPP’s at a fixed 17% ROE and local IPP’s at 12% ROE. Due to which the soaring costs of electricity are dealt with by the general public. In May 2024 the government insinuated at taxing the solar panels and net metering, but in the budget 2024-2025 they have cleared out all the ambiguities and said that there will be no taxation on solar energy producers or consumers. Even after all this the issue of high electricity cost to metered connections (non-solar) remains a critical matter in question. If the contracts with IPP’s are not revised timely we will be facing serious consequences in the form of total circular debt and anarchy in the country.