Karachi: Supreme Court of Pakistan has directed Attorney General to inform the court by Friday as to when the payments will be made to the eight IPPs that invoked sovereign guarantee for non payment of Rs. 61.401 billion at its due dates by NTDC.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan heard the petitions of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) against the Government of Pakistan due to continuous disregard of its obligation and inaction even several sovereign defaults have been occurred on the part of GOP.
Three member bench headed by Mr. Justice Tassadaq Hussain Jilani. Other 2 member of the bench are Mr. Justice Saquib Nisaar and Mr. Justice Tariq Pervaz. The bench remarked that electricity is the need of every one and it’s non availability hurts to common man through poor quality of life and increase in joblessness.
During the hearing, the Attorney General accepted the liability of government and NTDC but said that the amount payable amount to IPPs less than it is claimed in petitions. Moreover he explained that there is an unrecoverable amount of Rs10 billion every month from the consumers and 67 billions are stuck due to different stay orders pending in high courts regarding fuel adjustment charges.
The worthy bench commented that both reasons of non payment are GOP issue and do not pertains to IPPs. Their due payments be maid so that they can continue to produce the much needed electricity for the country. This is an urgent issue and should be settled with any loss of time.
Declaring the payment issue as of utter importance, AG has been given the time till Friday to inform when the payment will be made to IPPs for smooth supply of power to common man. The IPPs counsel requested the court to make the settlement agreement dated 27 September the order of the court for interim period.
This settlement agreement was an interim solution agreed between the parties when the same situation was arisen in year 2011 therefore it may be extended till the decision on the petition. The bench adjourn the proceeds till Friday on July 13, 2012.
Government dues of IPPs
The eight independent power producers (IPPs) that earlier invoked the sovereign guarantee had filed the petition to initiate legal action domestically instead of approaching the international arbitrators. The petition filed by 8 IPPs highlighted the failure of the government of Pakistan to make timely payments against the power supplied.
The petitioners said that the power crisis in the country has worsened as they could not buy fuel to run their units because of huge default of Rs61.401 billion by the government.
This amount include the capacity payment of Rs19.379 billion, energy payment of Rs37.846 billion, and other payments of Rs4.176 billion. Those included in the petition are Liberty Tech, Orient Power, Atlas Power, Nishat Power, Nishat Chunian, Saif Power, Halmore Power, and Sapphire Electric for payment of the outstanding dues of Rs11.131 billion, Rs4.121 billion, Rs10.478 billion, Rs9.661 billion, Rs10.899 billion, Rs5.722 billion, Rs2.415 billion and Rs6.974 billion respectively.
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