IPC re-notified: Govt seeks out of the box solution to NHP issue

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has re-notified the Inter-Provincial Committee (IPC) of technical and financial experts to propose an out-of-the-box solution for the payment of Net Hydel Profit (NHP) to the entitled provinces, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.

The committee, sources said, will go through the findings and recommendations of the Kazi Committee Methodology (KCM) to find a win-win for all the stakeholders. The Power Division has already conveyed that Rs600 billion per annum to KPK in the name of NHP, as was determined by KCM, will make the power sector unfeasible.

The issue was on the agenda of a meeting of Council of Common Interests (CCI) which was scheduled last week but it was postponed abruptly.

NHP for Wapda doubled for onward payment to KP

According to sources, in partial modification of the CCI Secretariat’s notification of August 18, 2022, and with the approval of the prime minister/chairman CCI, the re-notified Committee of Technical and Financial Experts on the issue of implementation of KCM for calculation of NHP will be as follows; (i) Ministry of Water Resources, Mehar Ali Shah, Additional Secretary as Technical Expert and Naveed Asghar Chaudhry Member (Finance) WAPDA, as Financial Expert; (ii) Power Division- Abid Lodhi, former CEO CPPA-G as Technical Expert and Rihan Akhtar, CEO CPPA-G as Financial Expert;(iii) Finance Division - Qamar Sarwar Abbasi, Additional Finance Secretary(CF);(iv) Planning, Development and Special Initiatives - Member (Energy), Planning Commission as Technical Expert and Afia Malik, Senior Research Economist as Financial Expert; (v) Government of Punjab-Dr Naeem Rauf, Secretary Energy Department as Technical Expert, Azmat Ranjha, former Federal Secretary as Financial Expert;(vi) Government of Sindh- Musaddiq Ahmed Khan, Secretary Energy Department as Technical Expert and Ashfaq Memon, as Financial Expert; (vii) Government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Secretary Energy and Power Department (by designation) as Technical Expert and Himayullah Khan as Financial Expert;(viii) Government of Balochistan- Barkatullah as Technical Expert and Abdul Hameed Mengal, as Financial Expert.

The Committee shall propose an out-of-the-box solution for the payment of NHP to entitled provinces and the deputy chairman Planning Commission should submit a report of the committee.

The deputy chairman Planning Commission or in case of his/her absence, the secretary, Planning Development and Special Initiatives will serve as the head/convener of the committee of technical and financial experts.

The prime minister, being Chairman CCI has already approved that in case of retirement/transfer of serving technical and financial expert(s), new nominee may represent the respective ministry/division/province concerned in the committee, under intimation to the Secretariat of the CCI.

The CCI, in its 49th meeting held on January 13, 2022, directed that the deputy chairman Planning Commission should submit report of the committee within one month.

Regarding, the issue of five per cent annual indexation on NHP, already approved by the CCI, it has already been agreed that the Government of KPK may move a summary on this matter in the next CCI meeting.

The Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives informed the CCI Secretariat on June 2, 2023, that the previous Committee, so far, held four meetings i.e. January 1, 2021, March 9, 2021, January 11, 2022, and May 17, 2023. Considering the strong divergence of opinion, the Chair (Minister for PD&SI), Deputy Chairman Planning Commission) during the last meeting held on May 17, 2023, decided that border consultation may be made involving the Finance Minister, Minister for Water Resources and Minister for Energy (Power) so that a mutually be developed. The meeting was scheduled in July 2023 but was postponed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024