Circular debt: Payments to power producers delayed

Dues will be cleared soon that will boost supply by 3,500MW.

SIALKOT:

Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) engineer Javed Ghuman has said that increase in power outages is the result of delay in payment of fuel charges to the independent power producers (IPPs).

However, the situation would improve in a day or two after payments were made to the IPPs, which would lead to an increase of 3,500 megawatts in power supply, he said in a meeting with Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) President Naeem Anwar Qureshi.

The SCCI president criticised unscheduled load-shedding for long periods, which disturbed the industry’s production activity. He said exporters had been unable to honour commitments to foreign buyers as per agreed terms.

He said the business community would come onto streets to protest against the power crisis if the situation did not improve in the next two days and asked the government to pay the IPP dues and make proper planning for future.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2011.