ZAHEER ABBASI

ISLAMABAD: As the next general elections draw nearer, Prime Minister Abbasi-led administration is becoming cautious about demand-supply and generation situation of electricity in the country where circular debt poses challenge to the power production.

On Monday, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chaired a meeting on issues relating to power sector and sought a briefing from Power Division with projections of demand and supply as well as power generation for the next eight months from henceforth. The Prime Minister directed that next federal cabinet meeting (most probably in the ongoing week) should be briefed on power situation from March till October 2018.

An official said the government obviously wants no load-shedding in summer and post-summer periods because of elections and the Prime Minister has been regularly reviewing power sector's issues.

Sources in the Finance Ministry, however, on condition of anonymity said circular debt has gone up from where it was in 2013 and is one of few things the ministry is concerned about.

They added that another one-off settlement of circular debt, like the one of Rs480 billion made during 2013, may be needed soon to run the power plants at optimal capacity for power generation in the summer. Otherwise, power producers' capacity to produce electricity may be compromised on account of circular debt problem, a situation the government never wants to be during the election year, they added.

Prime Minister Abbasi on Monday also directed the minister for power to personally visit and take provinces onboard for taking effective measures to reduce electricity losses and improve recovery situation of power dues.

The chairman WAPDA briefed the Prime Minister about the updated satiation vis-à-vis payments made so far to Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against net hydel profit claims. The issue of NHP, according to sources, was discussed to know what progress has been made on the issue after the federal cabinet's decision to approve a notification. They added that NHP payment issue was discussed during many CCI meetings because it was a major discord between the provinces and WAPDA. A meeting of the federal cabinet in the second week of February 2018 decided to prove a notification of Wapda hydroelectric tariff as was determined by the Nepra for fiscal year 2017-18 for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. The process was directed to be initiated for tariff determination of AJ&K as well. The meeting was told that as per law, the federal government's approval was required for issuance of notification for the tariff determined by Nepra on a tariff petition filed with it by the WAPDA.