Govt approves privatisation of RLNG power plants

ISLAMABAD: The Council of Common Interests (CCI) on Monday approved the proposed privatisation of two newly-established RLNG-based power plants with production capacity of more than 2,400 megawatts.

Prime Minister Imran Khan who presided over the CCI meeting approved privatisation of the re-gasified liquefied natural gas-based power plants, including 1,233 megawatts Balloki Power plant and another 1,230MW Haveli Bahadur Shah power plant, which have already been cleared by the cabinet committee on privatisation for its 100 percent sell-off in the next two years. Presently, the state-run National Power Parks Management Company Ltd (NPPMCL) owns and operates the plants.

Last week, the Privatisation Commission board asked NPPMCL to come up with a detailed working paper on proposed privatisation of the RLNG-based power plants. The last government entrusted NPPMCL with the task to go all out for augmenting reliable and cheap power generation capacity.

Earlier, the Cabinet Committee on Privatization allowed them to be handed over to the private sector. The two plants achieved commercial operation dates in middle of the last year. The CCI’s meeting participants advocated and emphasised focus on further improving ease of doing business in the country in order to attract investments and to promote industry for realizing the export potential of the country.

CCI also considered the issue of rapid population growth of the country which currently stands at 207.8 million with a growth rate of 2.4 percent per annum. It was decided to constitute national and provincial task forces to be headed by the Prime Minister at the national level and by the chief ministers at the provincial levels. The process of establishment of task forces will be completed in 48 hours.

The task forces to be constituted at the national and provincial levels will consider the recommendations made by the task force constituted earlier on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and will submit a comprehensive action plan to the CCI, taking into account the future implementation strategy of the action plan, the financial aspects and other issues relating garnering support of all segments of society for the success of a comprehensive population control program. The Council of Common Interests unanimously emphasised on the need for greater focus towards renewable energy in existing energy mix.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Fehmida Mirza, Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Asad Umer, Minister for Law and Justice Muhammad Farogh Naseem, Minister for Privatization Muhammad Mian Soomro, chief ministers Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar, Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan, and Balochistan Jam Kamal Khan.