While the federal government has been encouraging people to generate power through alternative energy sources to cut the country’s dependence on fuel imports, the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) has sent notices and imposed financial penalties on many of its residents for “violation” of its building control regulations by installing solar panels on their rooftops to generate electricity.
Earlier this month, in a move aimed at reducing the dependence on costly imported diesel, furnace oil and LNG for generating electricity Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had okayed a 10,000 MW solar energy project and had also removed the 17% general sales tax on solar panel to encourage businesses and households to opt for solar energy.
However, the DHA authority’s decision to send notices and impose fines on its residents for installing steel structures for the solar panels has left the residents quite unsettled.
Furthermore, the residents are also surprised that the DHA, which itself allowed them to install solar panels, is now threatening to penalize them.
“It is quite a strange and unexpected development because there are so many houses in DHA with solar panels on their rooftops. They were not questioned about this earlier, in fact encouraged. Now all of a sudden they are expected to cough up refurbishment charges that may amount to hundreds of thousands of rupees,” said Rashid H. Ansari, a resident.
