ISLAMABAD: Secretary Ministry of Water & Power Muhammad Younas Dagha Wednesday said that the government cleared Rs500 billion circular debt of independent power producers (IPPs) after coming into power.
The Secretary said this while addressing the participants of a seminar, titled “Transparency in public sector: An appraisal”, organised by the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage.
“There was an increase of around Rs 15 billion in circular debt every year when the government took over in 2013. The debt was not only cleared but also curtailed, which is evident from the fact that 100 percent payment has been made to IPPs in the fiscal year 2014-15,” he said.
The secretary said all details with regard to payments to IPPs were placed on official website of the ministry to uphold the principle of fairplay. With the government’s policy of transparency and good governance, he said, Rs 12 billion were being saved annually and so far over Rs 75 billion benefit went to the national exchequer.
He said electricity was being purchased from IPPs at the lowest rate of country’s history, and every month Rs 2 to 3 were being adjusted on account of fuel adjustment, benefitting consumers. He said there was `zero’ load-shedding to the industrial sector across the country, adding that six and eight hours power shut down was being observed in urban and rural areas respectively for domestic consumers.
Prior to the present government’s coming into power, Younas said consumers were facing around 12 to 16 hours load-shedding. “Power situation is improving gradually and hopefully by the years 2017 and 18, we will overcome the issue of load-shedding,” he added.
The secretary said three major power plants were being set up to generate 3,600MW electricity, besides highly efficient machines were being procured for the power sector. He said a number of power generation projects were underway to meet growing demand of electricity in the country, adding that approximately there was increase of 1,000 MW power every year in the country.
He said concerted efforts were being made to tackle the line loses whether they were of technical nature or through theft, which had been classified as low and high losses respectively. He said there was increased load-shedding in the areas falling in the category of high losses so that the unlawful and immoral activity could be stopped, besides making recoveries from there.
The secretary said an effective monitoring system was in place under which Rs 50 billion had been recovered on account of ‘high losses and recovery.” He said the recovery volume had improved efficiency and the ministry did not get any financial help to meet the loses in the year 2014-15.
Under the policy of transparency, Younas said, mobile meter reading system had been introduced under which a picture of the `reading’ was published in the monthly utility bill to avoid complaints. Besides, smart meters were being installed to stop corrupt practices, he added.
Replying to a question, the secretary said the Nandipur power plant was producing 460 MW electricity against its capacity of 425MW, its efficiency would further increase when the plant would be switched over to gas.
