PM calls CCE meeting to resolve SSGC, K-Electric payment issue

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has convened a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCE) in Karachi tomorrow (Monday) with a major focus of resolving the lingering gas supply issue between the state-run Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and privatised K-Electric company, as besides businesses, one-tenth of Pakistan’s population living in Karachi is suffering due to prolonged power outages. The SSGC and K-Electric have differences over outstanding payments and fuel supply. On Friday, the Ministry of Power tried to broker a deal, but it also failed to resolve the issues. The SSGC said K-Electric has to pay and outstanding amount of Rs78 billion, whereas K-Electric said the principal outstanding amount is only Rs13 billion and the remaining is in lieu of interest or mark-ups. Meanwhile, Minister for Power Division Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari wrote a letter to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on energy crisis in Karachi. He said that K-Electric could have run the closed plants on alternate fuel as reported by Nepra. The minister also stressed payment of Rs32 billion by the Karachi Water Supply Board to K-Electric to make it settle its payment issues with the SSGC. He also asked for the CM’s role for payment of outstanding payments of K-Electric towards the Water Supply Board. The recent crisis being faced in Karachi in form of loadshedding is the result of mismanagement, system inefficiencies and commercial mishandling by K-Electric. This has been very clearly highlighted by Nepra in its report on current energy crisis in Karachi. The report very clearly indicates that K-Electric has failed to bring its idle generation capacity online on the pretext of non-supply of gas by SSGC despite the fact that their closed plants could have run on alternate fuel.