PAC seeks rate of interest on Chinese loans

Pakistan hopes to have 26,000MW electricity
by end 2017 and around 30,000 till end of 2018

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday sought the details of rate of interest on which the loans are being obtained from China.

The PAC also sought details of the conditions of the loan obtained from China and the interest rates of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The PAC held its meeting on Thursday under its Chairman Syed Khursheed Shah in which the Secretary Ministry of Water and Power Yonus Dhaga gave a detailed briefing to the committee on power projects under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

During the meeting, Chairman PAC Syed Khursheed Shah expressed his displeasure over the absence of Secretary Ministry of Planning and Development and remarked that parliament was calling him to attend the meeting but he was avoiding it.  The secretary Ministry of Water and Power told the committee that there were 19 power projects under the CPEC with the capacity of 12,114 MW.

He told the PAC that under the CPEC, there were projects of 3,960 MW from coal, 2,714 MW from hydro projects, 900 MW from solar projects and 4,260 MW from imported coal and work on these projects was being done. “The power project of 1,320 MW from imported coal at Port Qasim will be completed in the coming December and advance tariff is 3.8 cents,” he told the committee.

It was told to the committee that there is no local company making investment at the Port Qasim projects and Chinese and Qatri companies are making investments there. The secretary water and power told the committee that all the power projects are being completed through investment and the government was not making expenditure on it. “Except for the hydro projects, all the power projects are case of upfront tariff,” he told the committee.

Secretary Ministry of Water and Power told the PAC that government was expecting huge investments in power sector in Gwadar and the prime Minister also directed linking Gwadar with National Grid and it will take one and a half year. “Around 105 MW electricity was being imported from Iran,” he told the committee.

He briefed the committee that digging of 70 metres has been completed in Thar Coal projects and advance tariff of coal project in Thar is 5.8 cent and it is estimated that there are 175 billion tons of reservoir of coal in Thar. He told the committee it is estimated that around 26,000 MW electricity comes into the national grid by the end of the December 2017 and around 30,000 till the end of year 2018 into the national grid and it is expected that Load Shedding will be end by March 2018..

The officials of the Ministry of Planning and Development told the committee that that all the projects under the CPEC will be completed through investment and Pakistan did not take any loans on it. “The $35 billion is investment under the CPEC projects is not loan,” the officials of the Ministry of Planning and development told the committee.

The officials of the ministry of Planning and Development told the committee that that Chinese government will provide a loan of $6 billion for road infrastructure and Rs 2.8 billion loan for Railways on lowest interest rate. “So far we have a total volume of CPEC is about $ 47.6 billion,” the officials told the committee. The committee has sought the details of the interest rate of the loans obtained from the China.