Independent Power Producers: PML-N accused of trapping country through ‘unfavourable’ deals

ISLAMABAD: The opposition leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub accused the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Tuesday of trapping the country through “unfavourable” agreements with Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

Speaking at a presser along with Shibli Faraz, the opposition leader in Senate, Ayub condemned the PML-N for securing costly capacity charges agreements and questioned the sincerity of the interim ministers who are now expressing concern over the issue.

He also came down hard on the previous interim government for being too occupied with other matters, such as attending social events, instead of tackling these pressing issues effectively.

Ayub highlighted that electricity production costs in Pakistan are disproportionately high compared to global standards, which is due to flawed polices of ruling PML-N.

He noted that during its stay in power in the past, PTI had renegotiated IPP contracts and locked the dollar rate for IPPs at Rs175, resulting in substantial savings.

Additionally, the PTI had renegotiated the LNG agreement with Qatar, saving over 10 billion dollars, he added.

He went on to say that the price of electricity was Rs17 per unit during PTI government while it had now skyrocketed to Rs85 per unit, adding 70pc of the power projects were using imported fuel.

He slammed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for announcing Rs50 billion relief package for domestic power consumers, saying he himself remained energy minister for quite some time, stressing that these hollow measures were not going to bring any substantial change.

“Shibli Faraz wrote a complete paper on IPPs. Electricity rate was Rs17 per unit when Imran Khan was prime minister. You have fixed rate of return in dollars. You should know who the culprit is,” he maintained.

He said that Pakistan’s capacity of power production was 43,000MW while its demand was gradually decreasing day by day as economy had gone into hibernation.

Shibli Faraz blamed the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for introducing IPPs and PML-N for finalising contracts with the IPPs.

“They bought [PPP and PML-N] the most expensive power plants and their generations will continue to benefit from these contracts and nation will bear the brunt,” he regretted.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024