Worried Minister of Energy , Mohammad Ali, has said that it is difficult toreduce electricity prices until there is a decrease in the dollar exchangerate. No action has been taken against IPPs, and there is no support forIPPs. They are not working on reducing the 60% billing recovery.
He mentioned that the agreements with IPPs included changing the returnfrom dollars to rupees in 2020 when the dollar rate was frozen at 148. Ifthe dollar had not been frozen, IPPs would have been paid at 300 today. Thegovernment has saved 75 billion rupees in the last three years. Agreementswith IPPs are at the international level under British law and courtjurisdiction. At that time, IPPs were brought to 148 rupees by presentingground realities.
In today’s date, IPPs in Pakistan are governed by three types of policies.
1. There was a policy from 1994 that is expiring in 25 years.
2. The policy from 2002, under which all their debt has been paid off.
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3. The policy from 2015, under which they are IPPs involved ininternational investment.
Therefore, we cannot terminate their contracts; we have examined everythingin detail. As for electricity theft, theft and non-payment of bills areseparate issues.
Currently, our 5 DISCOs have a problem; there is no recovery for the unitsstolen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. These DISCOs includePeshawar, Quetta, HESCO, SEPCO, and TESCO. The performance of the fiveDISCOs in Punjab is better. Things cannot be fixed overnight. Theelectricity generated in the world comes from petrol, hydel, and solar. Noaction has been taken against IPPs. They are not being supported, and weare not working on reducing the 60% billing recovery.
