Sindh govt asks Centre to pay IPPs’ dues

Karachi
The Sindh government has told the Centre about its concerns over the dues of independent power producers working in the private sector since a halt in their generation of power could worsen the electricity shortfall in the country.
In this regard, the Sindh government has urged the federal government to immediately disburse the payable dues of more than Rs1 billion to the independent power producers so as to avoid an increase in loadshedding hours.
These independent producers are situated mostly in Sindh, and on account of the massive shortfall in the payment of their dues, they have warned the authorities of shutting down their electricity generation units in protest.
If the independent power producers act upon this warning, the existing power shortfall would increase by 180 megawatts.
In this regard, the provincial finance minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has also contacted federal minister for water and power Khawaja Muhammad Asif to apprise him of the situation. In its response, the federal government assured the Sindh government that it would seek an immediate solution of the problem.
The provincial and federal minister also discussed decreasing the time of load shedding in village areas of Sindh.
The provincial government wants to set a schedule of load shedding for rural areas for the month of Ramzan.