Mohammad Arshad Islamabad
The current stock of circular debt has touched the tune of Rs. 2300 billion approximately in the country and it is mounting with the passage of each day.
Power Division has devised monthly circular debt reporting which also indicate different factors contributing to its build up.
According to well placed sources in the Power Division, the new Federal Minister for Energy Muhammad Hammad Azhar has expressed concerns over the reasons for increasing circular debt with instructions to departments concerned to look into the reasons and come up with tangible recommendations to curtail this issue.
Hammad Azhar, Wednesday, took detailed briefing on matters relating to power sector Wednesday afternoon.
The Federal Minister was also briefed about the ongoing development projects under the organisations of Power Division. These included major transmission and distribution improvement projects.
The Minister was apprised that total PSDP portfolio of Power Division for the year 2020-21 is 74497.770 million out of which major portion is contributed from the DISCOs and NTDC’s own resources.
Major Transmission projects included CASA-1000, 4000MW Matyari-Lahore HVDC line and Dassu Transmission line.
The Matyari-Lahore HVDC line CoD is in September 2021 after which it will be available for evacuation of Power Generation from South of the country, the Minister was briefed.
The Federal Minister for Energy was informed that in order to rationalize cost of Generation, old furnace oil GENCOs are being phase wise retired to replace with New efficient cost effective generation plants.
It will not only add to rationalize the basket price of electricity but will also reduce the unused capacity, the Minister was briefed.
