We are trying to correct mistakes made during PML-N’s tenure, says on soaring circular debt
ISLAMABAD
Minister for Energy Muhammad Hammad Azhar has said that the government has imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) at cheaper rates while it was purchased at higher prices in the past. In a video statement released on Monday, the minister, while reacting to a press conference conducted by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders, said the government has signed an agreement with Qatar to import LNG at the cheapest rate which is on record.
He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government would keep reminding PML-N of mistakes that ruined the energy sector with “expensive agreements and installation of unnecessary power houses.” He said the rent of power plants was Rs180 billion in 2013, which has now swelled to Rs800 billion annually due to expensive contracts made by the PML-N during its last tenure.
The government is bound to pay the rent throughout a year, whether the power plants operate or not. He questioned why the circular debt had increased from zero to Rs1,200 billion during PML-N’s tenure if there were good energy sector agreements and management.
Unless the PML-N leadership would keep telling a lie and hoodwinking the public, Hammad said “their Taleem-e-Balighan (education for adult) will continue as it is the matter of the country’s energy security… and we will continue reminding them of their past mistakes.”
The minister said the PTI government took corrective measures to streamline the matters related to the energy sector, adding it renegotiated agreements with power houses, reduced rates, closed some of the power plants and signed a historic deal for import of LNG from Qatar at the lowest rate.
“But the negative impact of PML-N’s wrong policies, expensive agreements and unnecessary power houses still exists, and as a result the consumer suffers,” he deplored.
He said consumers are bearing the brunt of the PML-N’s wrong policies as the government had to increase power tariff sometimes in compulsion caused by ever-increasing power houses’ annual rent and expensive power generation agreements signed by the past regime.
