Addition to Power Sector Circular Debt likely to be reduced to Rs130 bln in FY20: Spokesperson

February 14, 2020 (MLN): Spokesperson of Power Division while commenting on the current status of Power Sector Circular Debt, total liabilities and receivables has said that Circular Debt at the beginning of Sep 2018 when the PTI govt took office, was 1.33 trillion, increasing at a rate of 38 billion a month.

In a tweet today, he said that, with the measures taken by the govt, encapsulated in the Circular Debt Capping Plan, the Power Sector has considerably reduced the rate of increase to approximately Rs. 12-15 billion per month.

The Spokesperson further tweeted that various measures including tariff rationalization, recovery drives, anti-theft campaign and system modernization were initiated. Due to these measures, the addition to circular debt is expected to be reduced to Rs. 130billion in 2019-2020 compared to the target of 130bn in the Circular Debt capping plan.

Total Circular Debt as per definition by December 2019 stood at Rs.978 billion, owed to both public & private generators, while liabilities of PHPL payable to banks for loans taken in the past to pay generators stood at Rs.804billion, resulting in total liabilities of Rs.1782Billion, he added.

Meanwhile, he also clarified that the report in certain media sections that Circular Debt has reached 1.9 to 2 trillion is factually incorrect.

He further emphasized that for the first time in the history of the power sector, the sector has mobilised totally to fight against loss theft and corruption. This is not a weekly campaign but has been sustained for more than a year.

“We are confident that immense loss reduction, theft reduction and action against corrupt elements as well as improvement in infrastructure are leading to better service delivery to the common man and that we would fulfil the targets given in the circular Debt Capping Plan”, he added.