An official told parliamentarians Wednesday that Karachi’s electricity supply could be cut off if the federal government fails to pay subsidies to K-Electric (KE), a private company that supplies electricity. for the economic center of Pakistan.
“The Federal Government is providing a subsidy of Rs10 to Rs20 per unit to K-Electric to maintain tariff differentials,” the foreign minister said during a meeting of the Public Accounts Review and Implementation Committee. (CAP).
He said K-Electric should be immediately reimbursed for the difference in tariff allowance. The official said the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) will pay 20 billion rupees as an additional boost to K-Electric. He said that amount has now increased to 150 billion rupees. The minister told the committee that the federal government had subsidized between Rs10 and Rs20 per unit to K-Electric to maintain the tariff differential. “The Federal Government has failed to pay the amount of Rs 150 billion to K-Electric,” he said.
He said a committee led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is trying to resolve the issue and hopes to have it resolved by the end of June. The official said failure to pay K-Electric could lead to disruptions to the power transmission system.
At an inquiry by committee member Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, secretary, said people could face up to two more hours of blackouts during the next heat wave. “Outage duration will be increased by two hours as the nationwide heatwave is expected to intensify.”
During the meeting, officials from the Central Power Purchase Authority (CPPA) informed the commission that they had to pay Rs 16 billion to Independent Power Producers (IPPs). They say that it is not possible to collect the fees from the distribution companies, they are not able to pay the IPPs.
CAPP officials told the committee that margins for IPPs had increased greatly due to lack of payments. In 10 years, they added that the amount raised has increased from Rs 20 billion to Rs 216 billion. Committee organizer Syed Hussain