The circular debt was increasing at 400 billion per annum, at the end of PTI tenure it was 100 billion, and at the end of PDM period it was around 350. Figures by Hammad Azhar.
I don't think those figures are accurate as per the
report by the Senate standing committee on power, the circular debt was 1600 Billion by end of FY 2019 and had risen to 2150 Billion by end of FY 2020 (over 500 Billion in 1 year). Now these are authentic figures presented by the Senate committee after verification as there were different figures floating at the time.
As per a report by the Finance Division:
"In FY2013, circular debt was around Rs 450 billion which reached to Rs 1,148 billion in 2018 (700 Billion in 5 PML years). According to the data of the Central Power Purchasing Authority (CPPA), circular debt stood at Rs 2,467 billion by March 2022 (1.3 Trillion in 4 PTI years). This implies that circular debt is equivalent to 3.8 percent of Pakistan’s GDP and represents 5.6 percent of Pakistan’s government debt. Growing at the current pace and if it is allowed to grow unaddressed, it is estimated to reach Rs 4 trillion by 2025, demanding the urgency of reforms in the power sector."
Then, they fast tracked the work on multiple hydro projects. Would they be completed in 2 years so that IK could go and inaugurate a takhti? No. But would it be beneficial for us for the next 30 years, yes!
You have Ahsan Iqbal saying that 'PTI hakoomat nay aik bhi power plant nhn lagaya'. This is a federal minister saying this, who is an MBA or whatever. He very well knows our problem is not power generation. Even today we have surplus capacity. The problem is not power generation, but he still makes this statement.
I don't care much for what the politician says, whomever it may be.
Thirdly, how do you renege on long term contracts with IPP's? What would Khan do for that?
It's like you shoot a guy in the chest, and then blame the doctor for not being able to revive the patient.
Also, they introduced WACOG. It's not directly related to the power bills, but a part of the total utility bills that the consumer pays.
They also restructured the DISCOs. Sure, there was still plenty of room for improvement, but it was a start. PDM came in and totally changed the boards of DISCOs and had their own cronies into them.
Well, the same logic goes for every Government; what could PPP do about long term contracts signed by PML and what could PML do about long term contracts signed by PPP and so on.
But it makes me wonder if we can still take the matter to the international court of justice/arbitration and plead our case based on factual situation and the fact that corruption/incompetence was involved when the long term contracts were signed. The international community takes matters of corruption very seriously.
DISCOs should be privatized to increase competition and ensure recovery of bills and to eliminate line losses (theft).
Guess who the following minister is?
What is the above about, privatization of FESCO? This is just a partial clip of a larger debate and has conjecture by a journalist which may or may not be correct.
But, as I said above, DISCOS's should immediately be privatized along with PIA, PR, PSM and all other SOE's etc.
That's why you plan your power generation mix for the next 20 years rather than make decisions on a whim.
France does not have oil and gas. What did it do? Did it create this excuse and just start importing LNG and coal and whatever? No. They planned it out, they went for nuclear. Iceland (or Finland?) does not have viable O&G, so what did they do? They went for geothermal. You plan stuff, that's why you are in government. If you are planning stuff for the next week or next year, you are already faaaar behind the curve.
Can we control imported fuel prices? No.
Can we not create an imported coal power plant in Sahiwal? Hell yes.
Can we not create a solar park in Bahawalpur with zero thought about the upkeep? Yes.
Can we not create short term power plants on capacity payments? Yes.
All the Yes's and No's are lost to time now. We are in a situation where we now need to make do with what we already have, including surplus power generation capacity.
What is the penalty for breaking the contracts?
I believe sooner or later, we will have to take this bitter pill for the short term, and get long term gains.
Like I said above, we must atleast make an attempt. Who knows......
And suddenly they were called traitors and Asad Umar and Razzaq Dawood were called to GHQ and given an ear full.
Aur choopo phir chinese kay and keep reaping the rewards.
Am I saying that PTI is the solution to everything? No.
But at least they check out 10 of the 100 agenda items, rather than making 50 things worse.
I think one of the conditions of the CPEC contracts is privacy and hence they cannot be made public; the repercussions based on Chinese annoyance could be very big.