President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF) Mian Zahid Hussain has said that the data regarding power generation and losses of electricity should not be kept hidden from people and other government departments so that all can know the truth. "Power plants should not be kept closed to keep circular debt from escalation," he urged.
Mian Zahid said that power plants have to pay in cash for furnace oil while gas should remain available on credit which would be an incentive to keep furnace oil-based plants closed. He said that some power plants are kept closed intentionally while others are being operated on reduced capacity which amounts to punishing people during summer season.
"Government needs to change policy and contain line losses and theft to improve supply of electricity to national grid," he proposed saying that the government is able to produce 18,000 megawatts electricity in summer while demand is more resulting in load-shedding. He said that demand continues to increase by 1,000 megawatts per annum which may get a boost due to economic corridor.
The PBIF president said that IPPs are capable to jointly produce 10,000 megawatts of electricity but their capacity is not utilised while the issue of non-payments is resulting in mounting circular debt. He said that one reason of the circular debt is difference between tariff and production cost while payment of subsidies by the government is also delayed, frequently.
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