Islamabad:
On Wednesday, the Senate’s Standing Power Committee grilled the power department on its lack of given answers to the costs and effectiveness of IPPS, the uncontrolled increase in circular debt and renewable electricity load in the peak load in the peak load.
The committee, as President of Senator Mohsin Aziz, expressed strong dissatisfaction with the power division’s lack of transparency.
“We asked for a global comparative analysis of IPP power plants over a year ago, but no data has been shared,” Senator Aziz said. He regretted the division’s continued reluctance to share the product efficiency figures and call the IPP events unfair from the start.
Senator Shibli Faraz paralyzed Power Division to evade questions.
“Over the past four years we have not received any clear answers. These projects were the result of interaction. The costs were artificially bloated to increase profits, not because of real investments. This has curled our economy and burdened generations,” he said. He condemned the ongoing use of bank loans to settle circular debt and said, “We are celebrating borrowing as if it is a success story”.
Faraz also emphasized that the power department should stop hiding behind Task Forces and meet parliamentary control head-on.
In response to criticism, power secretary Rashid Mahmood Langrial explained that circular debt payments were now linked to existing debt -service grants and assured the committee that no new financial burden would be transferred to consumers. He defended the government’s decision to reduce electricity grants and said it helped control the circular debt.
Langrial admitted that some IPPs had received excessive returns and said, “We have already recovered a further RS30 billion in excess profits from IPPS earned through fuel and O&M margins.”
