ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat Friday has called for conducting a forensic audit of independent power producers (IPPs) after public outcry over inflated bills. Pakistanis have been receiving high electricity bills which also include capacity payments being made to the IPPs. The power producers are paid capacity payment regardless of whether they generate electricity or not. Several protests have been staged across the country against high electricity bills, including a sit-in being held by the Jamaat-e-Islami in Rawalpindi. During the committee meeting, chaired by Senator Rana Mahmood ul Hassan, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) Chairman Waseem Mukhtar briefed the members.”New power plants that generate electricity will be installed. We plan to open the commercial market in October or November, at which point customers will have the freedom to purchase electricity from any provider.”
The head of Nepra stated that everyone had “made mistakes” and mentioned the 2007 power outage. China provided assistance in the installation of power plants in 2013–14.
“We increased the amount of electricity in the [national] system to reflect our expectation that the GDP would grow by 6%. We became overcrowded as a result of our emotions. Our requirements have decreased.”
He said that the government had provided incentives to the corporations because of the power outage.
