ECC approves electricity price hike
The last two governments have made extra payments of Rs. 956 billion to independent power producers (IPPs) in the last ten years, says Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak
The senator revealed this during a meeting of a Standing Committee on Tuesday.
He presented an in-depth analysis of the IPPs’ agreements, showing that they should have earned Rs. 400 billion under the agreement, but their profit during the last ten years was Rs. 1,400 billion. “This is all visible on NEPRA’s website,” he said.
This amounts to more than $6 billion, or about the same amount that we’ve just borrowed from the IMF.
Senator Khattak’s observations, however, were rejected by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) and the IPPs. They believe that Senator Nauman’s comment is misconstrued.
The senator said that the experts analyzed the IPPs’ finances over the last five years. During the process, it was discovered that they earned Rs. 2.3 billion per year on average. The amount is way above the profit limit set by NEPRA.
“As per GoP Policy, they were entitled to a profit of Rs. 717 million per annum, however, they were on average earning Rs. 3,106 million per annum, hence making an illegal profit of Rs. 2,389 million per annum,” he said.
Based on these calculations, it was observed that a total amount of Rs. 955.7 billion (around $6 billion based on current exchange rates) were paid extra to 40 thermal power stations.
Previously, Power Minister Omar Ayub had termed these IPPs as the ‘biggest landmine’ laid by previous governments for the PTI government.
Senator Khattak stated that the government should take up the matter and recover the extra payments from IPPs.
