Competitive Electricity Buyer Model for Woo Away Energy Crisis.

KARACHI -- Ismail Suttar, President Employers' Federation (EFP), has expressed great concern on the recent hike in electricity unit by Rs. 1.9 per unit with special emphasis on when the MOUs of the Government with 19 Independent Power Producers (IPPs) will finally materialize as the escalated circular debt is now wearing away precious 1.5 billion Rupees of opportunity, per day. In a statement, EFP president hoped that the steady withdrawal of gas supply to industrial units amid an ongoing 6 months' grace period of energy subsidies announced by the Prime Minister in November are of the same plan as resuscitation of industries is contingent on these crucial steps.

'The Economic Council of EFP has since last year, been constantly advocating for forensic auditing of IPPs with whom governments of the past had signed expensive power purchase agreements that had resulted in costly repayments of capacity charges in dollar terms', he added. Instead of a single-buyer model, the Council suggested a competitive power purchasing...