FAISALABAD. Industrial and trader’s organizations have chalked out a comprehensive protest strategy individually and collectively to start a movement against unbearable capacity charges paid to the Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
Dr. Sajjad Arshad, Acting President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) said government must rescind, amend or reschedule these agreements on top priority basis to restrain the business community to take extreme steps.
Addressing a hurriedly called Press Conference immediately after an emergent meeting of the executive committee of FCCI, he said that the episode of IPPs started in 1994 when the country was experiencing the worst ever menace of load shedding.
“Hubco was the first IPP while the installed capacity of IPPs jumped from 3,000MW to 20,000 in 2013” he said and added that it would swell to 43,000MW in 2024 while the consumption of electricity was still restricted to only 13,000MW. He said that some IPPs are getting billions of rupees without producing even a single unit of electricity under the head of capacity charges. He said that the price of electricity has touched the figure of Rs.70-80 per unit only due to the addition of unrealistic capacity charges.
Dr. Sajjad Arshad said that this year Rs.2100bn was paid as capacity charges to the IPPs which would become Rs.2800bn next year and this process would continue till 2030. He said that this situation has crippled the industrial and business sectors in addition to making the life of the common man miserable.
He said that the government must decide right now if it has to protect 40 IPPs or save 240 million people in Pakistan. He further said that the government must show seriousness to settle down this chronic issue before it is too late.
He said that the IMF package has further aggravated the situation which has opened the floodgates of taxes and the majority of people are unable to pay their electricity bills. He criticized unlimited powers entrusted to the FBR including issuing non-bail-able arrest warrants for businessmen.
He said that the people following the Prophetic profession of trading are being dubbed as thieves despite the fact that they are paying hefty taxes to run the state institutions. He said that the situation has forced them to migrate to other countries or dump their savings and investments in banks instead of injecting them into the economy.
“Bank’s deposits have crossed the limit of 30 trillion due to this reason”, he said and added that 25% industry have been closed rendering millions of workers jobless and this situation was fomenting lawlessness in the country.
He demanded immediate intervention of high ups to avoid further degradation of the law & order situation. He particularly mentioned SM Tanvir of FPCCI who has voluntarily offered to renegotiate agreement regarding his two IPPs in best national interest and said that other IPPs should also follow the suit.
He said that the circular debt of the power sector has become 5.42trillion due to these agreements and the government must intervene and correct the situation. He said that an emergent meeting of FCCI was held which unanimously adopted a resolution stressing the government to rescind, renegotiate, amend or reschedule the agreements with IPPs to give respite to industry and people of Pakistan.
Responding to a question, he said that the business community consists of law-abiding citizens and they avoid protestation but the situation is pushing them to take extreme steps by starting protests and sit-ins. He said that we have actually recorded our dismay, concern and protest through this press conference and the situation may take a serious turn if the government failed to pay heed to their genuine demands.
Responding to yet another question, he clarified that FCCI is an apolitical forum and we would not become part of any protest initiated by a political party. However, we would continue our struggle independently without becoming a part of the protest of any political party.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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