Senate Standing Committee calls for forensic audit of IPPs

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat has decided to conduct a forensic audit of the Independent Power Producers(IPPs).

A meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat was held under the chairmanship of Rana Mehmoodul Hassan, in which a briefing was given to the committee on behalf of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) Chairman Waseem Mukhtar.

Chairman NEPRA said that it is the most difficult task to establish a balance between the government, the electricity company and the consumers. Now the new power generation plants are not being imported , the commercial market has started opening by October and November. The consumer will be allowed to get electricity from the company of his choice.

Waseem Mukhtar said that we all made a mistake, there was a shortage of electricity after 2007, in 2013-14, power plants were built with Chinese assistance, we thought that GDP would remain at 6 percent, we added electricity based on this calculation.

He said that due to power shortage, “We had given incentives to the companies, we had given incentives in dollars to the companies setting up the plants, the value of our rupee is not stable, so the investor asks for payment in dollars”.

He said that the price of electricity will not increase if the government gives confidence to the investors and keeps the economic conditions stable.

Senator Abdul Qadir said that IPPs made money by over-pricing and power producers have made money in 10 years.  The forensic audit should be conducted and it should also be closely monitored.

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Chairman Committee Rana Mehmoodul Hassan said forensic audit of IPPs should be conducted as people want accountability while Senator Saifullah Niazi said that we hold a separate meeting on this issue.