Cabinet panel satisfied over reduced accumulation of circular debt

ISLAMABAD: The Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) reviewed the Circular Debt Report September 2021, submitted by the Power Division, and appreciated the reduced accumulation of the circular debt.

The meeting of the CCoE was held under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar.

The Petroleum Division presented a report on the development of strategic petroleum reserves. It was informed that a working group, comprising OGDCL, PSO, PEPCO, Parco, TPPL and PRL was constituted to develop a concept paper and study the strategic reserves requirement in the country.

This working group has completed the initial assessment and a detailed feasibility study is being planned based on the recommendations of the working group. It was informed that the Maritime Ministry has also developed a proposal on this.

Therefore, the CCoE was directed to constitute a committee under the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) with the Maritime Ministry and Petroleum Division as members for finalising the proposal and reviewing the detailed framework for the establishment of strategic petroleum reserves.

The meeting also considered the summary presented by the Power Division on standard security agreements for small hydropower projects (up to 50MW) under the Power Generation Policy 2015.

It was informed that the policy envisaged the development of large, as well as small hydel projects. The Cabinet committee agreed with the framework for the ongoing and committed power projects. For small dams, it said they had already directed and approved the policy for the creation of a market-based system so that the risk and liability do not rest with the taxpayers of Pakistan.

These guidelines include the competitive trading bilateral contracts market (CTBCM) and “Wheeling Policy”, which have both been designed for this very purpose.

It was further directed that this policy framework for small dams should be consistent with the overall policy directive.