Raja Pervez asks CMs to pay electricity bills

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

Monday, 19 Apr, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Water & Power Raja Pervez Ashraf on Monday has asked all the chief ministers of the provinces to immediately pay the electricity bills of their subjective governments so that the issue of circular debt could be resolved.

Ashraf said that Pepco is facing financial constraints in purchasing electricity from power generation companies.

After a severe criticism on prolonged load shedding, Ashraf told the participants of the energy conference that outstanding liabilities of the government department have accumulated to Rs85 billion.

He said due to low fuel supply and non availability of gas, a number of Independent Power Plants are operating below their capacity.

He informed the Punjab chief minister that his government has not paid electricity bills worth Rs4 billion.

Similarly, the outstanding liabilities of Sindh government are as high as Rs21 billion.

The NWFP government has to pay Rs15 billion and the liability of the AJK government is Rs3 billion.

The outstanding liability of the federal government on account of electricity bills is Rs3.5 billion.

He also informed the conference that Pepco has to receive Rs39 billion from the KESC.—DawnNews