Islamabad:
In an effort to mitigate the sufferings of the people affected by the worst floods in decades, the Government has decided to provide relief in electricity bills to consumers and has sought the assent of the International Monetary Fund for this purpose.
Floods in three rivers so far have made millions of homeless people, in addition to damaging crops in 1.3 million acres of land. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked the Ministry of Finance to communicate with the IMF and obtain his consent to give relief in electricity bills in the areas damaged by the flood ongoing, according to government sources.
After the instructions of the Prime Minister, the Ministry held a virtual meeting with the IMF on Friday and sought its support for the resignation of the bills, they added.
The Pakistani authorities asked the IMF to postpone the bills for three months with the argument that similar relief had been offered in 2022 in the areas affected by floods. The IMF has sought more data, that the power division would provide within this week.
The sources said that until now the consumers of the Lahore Electricity Supply Company regions, Gujranwala Electric Power Company, Faisalabad Electricity Supply Company and Fine Electric Power Power Company have been negatively affected by the biblical flood. There are possibilities that consumers of the Sukkur electricity company are also affected by floods.
The immediate concern is to address the issue of electricity invoices for the month of August, which are now due, said Sardar Awais Laghari, Federal Minister of Power while talking with the Express PAkGazette. He said that the energy division was collecting the data in the affected areas and that only then will be in a position to evaluate the tax requirements to provide relief.
The prime minister is very inclined to relieve the load of energy consumers in the affected areas and soon a formal advertisement will be made in this regard, Laghari said.
The government was considering multiple options to provide relief. One of the options is to provide financial assistance through Benazir’s income support program. But it limits the scope to all the affected people. The other option is to provide a fiscal flood relief package.
The severe flood in the Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej rivers has flooded vast lands, which makes millions of homeless. Until now, the most affected districts include Gujarat, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Nanowal, Muzaffarh, fine and Bahawalpur.
Almost 6,500 animals have already been perished in floods and permanent crops at 1.32 million land acres have been flooded. People urgently need government help, since they have lost both the shelter and livelihood.
The Government has already declared the agricultural emergency in the areas affected by floods. The prime minister has instructed that relief must be provided in both rural areas and cities.
However, the sources said Punjab was not claiming so far the flood of 1.32 million lands such as damage to crops. There is an opinion that some of the crops can only be flooded and the situation will be clear once the water goes back.
Rana Tanveer Hussain, Federal Minister of Food and National Security, said this week that provincial governments would also work to renounce land income for the affected regions.
Tanveer declared that once the surveys of the regions impacted by the floods are completed, a farmers’ support package will be announced. The survey is expected to end in mid -September, and preliminary data indicate crop losses in several areas, with the Gujranwala division experiencing the greatest damage, up to 18%. The rice fields, in particular, have suffered significant losses.
The IMF mission will arrive in Pakistan for the third week of this month. The sources said the Ministry of Finance was reviewing the possibility of requesting the IMF to relax the objectives of the surplus of the primary budget and the provincial cash surplus.
The Ministry of Finance was also working in the support package of the farmer in line with a similar package given after the devastating floods of 2022, the sources said. They said that Pakistan has a convincing case to seek relaxation in these fiscal objectives for the current fiscal year due to the great magnitude of the losses.
A delegation of federal secretaries also visited this week the National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC) at the NDMA headquarters. The NDMA gave an informative session on the situation of the predominant monsoon and the response measures made by the authority.
Floods have impacted supplies of perishable food. According to the Weekly Inflation Bulletin of the Pakistan Statistics Office, the trend of year after year represents an increase of 5.03% in inflation this week compared to a year ago. An important increase in tomato prices, which jumped 91%, sugar 29.3%, 18.7%wheat flour, pulses 15%) and 12%beef, 12%beef was added, 12%beef,
However, weekly, the SPI for the current week ended on September 11, 2025 slightly decreased due to a 10% reduction in wheat flour prices after the Punjab government took some corrective administrative measures.
