Power and energy: K-Electric may be nationalised, hints Ali

Minister says that the company had defaulted over Rs100b.

HYDERABAD: K-Electric, it seems might be inching closer toward nationalisation as the private company allegedly defaulted a payment of around Rs100 billion to state-owned companies.

Water and power minister Abid Sher Ali hinted about this possibility at a press conference on Tuesday. He also stated that the subsidised sale of the power to K-Electric will be discontinued.

According to Ali, K-Electric had not paid Rs53 billion to the Sui Southern Gas Company, Rs33 billion to the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC), Rs3 billion to Pakistan State Oil and up to Rs2 billion to Pakistan Television, among others.

K-Electric’s five-year contract with the NTDC, which treated the company at par with the government's distribution companies, expired last month.

Ali said that the National Electricity and Power Regulatory Authority, SSGC and NTDC were completing formalities by writing letters to K-Electric to ask the company to clear their dues. The company has been given two to three weeks after which action will be taken against it, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2015.