Charter of the Economy 23.2. Constraints to Growth The power sector faces serious impediments to utilization of existing capacity as described below. Growing Reliance on Imported Fuel There is a big increase in the use of imported fuel for power generation. This is due, first, to decline in available gas reserves Table 23.6: Import Share in Generation of Different Fuels –(%) 2001-02 2018-19 in the country, especially at Sui. Petroleum Products 55 58 Second, the expansion of thermal Natural Gas/ LNG 00 21 capacity has increased the level of Coal 24 76 imports of coal and LNG, as shown in Table 23.6. This has created Source: NEPRA State of Industry Report problems of timely availability and price fluctuations, which was demonstrated recently in the import of LNG. Large System Losses The power sector of Pakistan is characterized by high losses as compared to international standards. These losses are of two types, namely, transmission and distribution losses and billing losses. The trend in the magnitude of losses is given in Table 23.7. Table 23.7: Magnitude of Transmission and Distribution and Extent of Non-Recovery of Billing –(%) 2014-15 2019-20 Transmission and Distribution Losses 20.1 15.2 Billing Losses 10.7 10.8 By Type of Consumer: 24 76 Domestic 12.4 13.8 Commercial 2.5 0.3 Industrial 4.2 3.5 Transmission and distribution Source: NEPRA State of Industry Report losses are high, though they have come down from 20 percent to 15 percent in the last five years. This is attributable to an outdated system of feeders and to high level of electricity theft. They are high in relation to other countries where it generally ranges from 7 percent to 10 percent. Billing losses have remained virtually unchanged at close to 11 percent, with the highest incidence in the case of domestic consumers. Overall, for the system as a whole, for every 1 Gwh of electricity purchased by a DISCO the revenue effectively collected is on 0.756 Gwh. This has fundamentally affected the financial viability of the power sector. 224