Details emerge of govt-IPP agreement to boost industrial sector

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PM Imran Khan says the government is reforming the loss-making power sector. — Geo.tv

The government signed a new deal with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) on Friday in a bid to bring down the cost of electricity generation and reduce the circular debt.

According to sources, the government committee had signed a Memorandum of Agreement with 13 IPPs functioning on wind power.

Another six wind power IPPs will sign the agreement on Monday, sources said, adding that these electricity producers are from private, government and China Pakistan Economic Corridor sectors.

Sources further said that these IPPs will receive profit in rupees and not dollars, as underlined in the 1994 and 2002 power policy.

Therefore, in the agreement, the dollar to rupee rate has been fixed and until the duration of the agreement, it will remain steady at Rs148.

Sources said that in these talks, no agency official was present and the committee was given two kinds of authority under which it will do a forensic audit of the IPPs and lead talks for an agreement.

They added that the IPPs agreed to return Rs104 billion to the government. National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) will be the receiving authority.

Those foreign investors who will pitch in money will get profit in dollars from the project.

The government sources said that the agreement will lay the basis for buying electricity from power producers in the future and also fix tariff issues.

Power tariff to reduce

Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Imran Khan had congratulated the nation on the singing of the agreement with IPPs and said Pakistan had turned the corner and now ample job opportunities would be available to the people.

According to The News, PM Imran said he wanted to share the good news that as a result of an agreement with the IPPs, the power tariff will come reduce for industries and household users will also benefit.

He noted that negotiations with the IPPs were underway for the last many days and now with an agreement in place, it would help decrease the circular debt. He said the government is reforming the loss-making power sector.