Iraqi private generator owners to shut down nationwide from midnight

BAGHDAD — Private generator owners across Iraq will switch off at midnight on Sunday in protest over taxes, fuel allocations and fees, the Central Generator Committee said, raising the prospect of outages for households and businesses that depend on them when the grid fails.

The shutdown is “a clear and peaceful protest message demanding fairness, an end to injustice against generator owners, and a review of decisions and procedures that affect their work,” the committee said. Operators object to retroactive taxation, insufficient subsidised fuel, multiple fees and regulations issued without consulting them, and say their proposals have been repeatedly ignored.

It comes less than a week after the Council of Ministers postponed tax settlements for the sector until Nov. 1. In May the government approved supplying generators with 40 litres of gas oil per kilovolt of capacity a month for three months at 200 dinars a litre, half the previous subsidised price, covering an estimated 1.357 billion litres. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met operators in June and ordered fuel procedures simplified and operating hours maintained. Operators say their allocations still do not match the hours they are required to run.

Private generators form a parallel network across federal Iraq, with households, shops and public institutions subscribing to neighbourhood diesel units to cover grid outages. Residents in several Baghdad neighbourhoods have reported roughly two hours of state power followed by two without, and sometimes longer. Generation has fallen to about 21,000 MW against summer demand the Electricity Ministry put at 55,000 to 60,000 MW.