Power sector debts soar above Rs 680 bln

Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) in its ‘Financial Review 2015-16’ to the Prime Minister Office and the Ministry of Water and Power says the amount of the power sector’s payables surged 44 pct to Rs 300 bn on June 30, 2016. This rise comes despite the Rs 480 bln paid by the government to the power producers and fuel suppliers.

The receivables include arrears outstanding against power consumers and recoverable by the distribution companies, while their payables are owed to independent power producers (IPPs), fuel suppliers and the Water and Power Development Authority.

The report also points out an improvement in the recovery rate to 94.4pc for billed amounts of year 2015-16, compared with 89.2pc recovery in the same period in previous year. Moreover, the overall system losses have also been declined to 17.9 pct this year from previous year’s 18.7 pct.

The liabilities against the federal government stood at Rs17bn in June 2016, while Sindh topped the list of provinces with arrears of about Rs74 bln. Balochistan owes 18.6 bln, Punjab Rs 5.7 bln and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rs 880 million.

The liabilities against K-Electric have reached to Rs 46 bln .