Observer Report
Karachi
The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has said that the growing circular debt in the power sector is a continued threat for the government’s recent move of cut in power tariff for SMEs.
FPCCI President Mian Anjum Nisar, in a written statement issued, appreciated the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet to form a committee of all stakeholders to prepare a proposal on modalities for clearing the circular debt of around Rs1.6 trillion circular debt, saying it is a right step in the right direction.
He said that the issue of circular debt will continue to haunt the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s resolve of reducing cost of doing business, elimination of peak-hour charges from industrial power tariff and discount on consumption of additional units for B1, B2 B3 connections. The power sector circular debt issue may be considered holistically and a solution may be worked out to resolve the issue without escalating electricity cost, as its size has doubled during last two years in spite of that the government raised power tariff multiple times in the past on the plea of containing its rising trend, he added.
Past trend of increasing tariff to control circular debt has totally failed, he argued .