LAHORE, Nov 6: The Wapda has clarified a news item published in a section of press on Saturday. A Wapda spokesman said that the National Assembly’s standing committee on water and power had asked Wapda to give them the current purchase price from the independent power producers (IPPs), which run on furnace oil as the cost of oil is a pass-through item to Wapda.

The spokesman clarified that Wapda chairman presented the average purchase price of energy in the last 12 months and the negative effect of this purchase on Wapda finances. He informed the committee that Wapda paid Rs151.3 billion to IPPs during the last fiscal year and the amount was likely to rise to Rs200 billion in the current fiscal year. However, no figure of the required increase in tariff was given by Wapda chairman as this is worked out by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority and notified by the federal government.