On Monday, Minister for Water and Power, Khawaja Asif said on a private television channel that the PPIB has an agreement with the IPPs individually but has nothing to do with IPPAC, adding that the PPIB would send notices to IPPs for this. IPPs have given the deadline of March 16, 2017 to avoid default.
When contacted, PPIB spokesperson, Sami Rafi Siddiqui said that the PPIB will not issue notices to the IPPs, adding that the payment has to be made by the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA), which is the power purchaser not the PPIB. He said that thirteen IPPs have sent notices to the PPIB.
"I received notices from the IPPs on Friday last and sent them to the Ministry of Water and Power which may have been received on Monday. The Ministry will resolve this issue amicably," he added.
The IPPs through the advertisement pointed out that they are being forced to one again call upon GoP guarantees to collect their audited and verified past due amounts in order to ensure that they can keep supplying power.
Sami Rafi Siddiqui further stated that the IPPs had also served such notices in the past but the Ministry always sorts it out. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the Ministry of Water and Power has decided to convene a meeting of the IPPs to resolve payment issue and also sought additional funds from the Ministry of Finance in this regard.
The Ministry of Water and Power is also annoyed with the Ministry of Finance which is creating hurdles in payment of funds after the retirement of Dr Waqar Masood. Recently, Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet approved new loan of Rs 30 billion for the power Distribution Companies (Discos) after the Finance Ministry refused to release subsidy sought by the Ministry of Water and Power.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017