KARACHI: Responding to what it termed “baseless allegations” levelled by Senator Raza Rabbani, the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has urged the PPP leader to play a role in ensuring regular supply of electricity to consumers by getting government entities to pay billions owed to the utility.

In a press release issued on Wednesday, the KESC said the federal and provincial governments had failed to fulfil their contractual obligations as they owed Rs56 billion under various heads, including unpaid bills, to the utility by December.

When the current management was taking over the KESC, the government committed to a regular and stable supply of 276MMCFD of natural gas to run its old power plants, said the handout. Another 130MMCFD was committed for the new BQPS-II.

However, the commitment has not been fulfilled in the last two years.

“Non-payment of such huge outstanding amounts and short supply of natural gas on the part of government has been playing havoc with the power generation and supply system for Karachi consumers,” said the handout.

“The utility neither has an endless cash flow to buy furnace oil through upfront cash payment for power generation, nor is it an ideal position to sustain an ever-growing circular debt.”

The handout added that the utility had invested $450 million in the 560MW power plant at Bin Qasim and also spent generously for the improvement of existing power stations, transmission system, distribution network and public complaintredressal system.