ISLAMABAD, Dec 22: With the power shortage exceeding 3,000 megawatts, distribution companies are carrying out over six hours of load-shedding in urban and over 10 hours’ in rural areas across the country.

Representatives of the power companies told Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf at a meeting here on Monday that the situation was likely to persist till February.

The meeting, also attended by officials of the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco), discussed the performance of distribution companies and the level of recovery of dues. The water minister is reported to have criticised the distribution companies for carrying out unannounced load-shedding.

He also expressed concern over accumulation of circular debt of more than Rs120billion of which R40billion was owed by the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC).

The KESC claimed that the outstanding dues were Rs30billion, and the minister said that the company should first clear Rs30billion and leave the matter of the remaining amount to be settled in due course.

A meeting held in Lahore last week, attended by Raja Pervez Ashraf and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tarin, failed to persuade the government to intervene and provide money to reduce the amount of circular debt. A large part of the debt is owed by the government on account of subsidy.

The circular debt was of about Rs400 billion left by the Musharraf government and consists of outstanding dues which distribution companies have to pay to independent power producers (IPPs) and the latter to oil refineries and gas companies. The IPPs mostly run on furnace oil and gas and can reduce the present shortage considerably if they start generating to their full capacity.

“The finance department has told us in clear terms that it cannot provide money at this time. It says the debt issue should be resolved through recovery by distribution companies from defaulters,” an official of the power and water ministry told Dawn.

At present, Pakistan’s total generation is less than 8,000MW a day while requirement is over 11,000MW. Hydel power generation is at its lowest level with water releases having been reduced because of annual closure of canals from 20,000 to 13,000 cusecs at Terbela and from 20,000 to 5,000 cusecs at Mangla dams.

A press release issued by the Water and Power Ministry said that Mr Ashraf had asked the distribution companies to ensure 100 per cent recovery of their current bills from government and private consumers. He warned that the chief executive officers of the distribution companies would be held responsible if they failed to improve their dues recovery level.

He directed Pepco to devise a sustainable strategy to handle the energy crisis.

The minister also asked the management of Pepco and distribution companies to work out a plan to recover outstanding dues from consumers and improve their performance by reducing line losses and adopting austerity measures.