ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the secretaries of the ministries of water and power and finance over clearance of circular debt to a number of Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
A two-Judge bench comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry resumed hearing of the constitutional petitions moved by Sapphire Electric, Orient, Nishat, Saif, Liberty, Atlas, Halmore Generation and Nishat Chunian power companies.
Khalid Anwar, counsel for the petitioners, apprised the bench that they were not paid two monthly amounts of Rs8 billion each through equal monthly installments.
A representative of the ministry of water and power assured the bench that the amount would be paid soon as had been promised.
Meanwhile, an official of the ministry of finance said that they were facing certain financial issues which would be cleared within a couple of weeks.
The bench adjourned further hearing till September 12 with observation that the previous and present governments were required to clear all circular debts.
During previous hearing, Khawaja Tariq Rahim, counsel for ministry of water and power, had apprised another bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry that payment schedule had been reached between them and the private power companies under which Rs8 billion had been paid out of total Rs24 billion whereas two further installments amounting to Rs8 billion each would be paid on August 30 and September 30 respectively.
The companies had also submitted a report warning that the circular debt had reached to Rs400 billion and warned that if the companies were not paid with the outstanding amount, the power generation could witness a reduction, adding to load-shedding.
An amount of Rs45 billion had been agreed as undisputed overdue amount of these IPPs before the Supreme Court which had directed the concerned authorities and the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) to reconcile overdue amount with IPPs and inform it about the payment schedule.
The IPPs and NTDC had held several meetings and reconciled the amount from total default out of which some payments during this time were made by the NTDC.
The NTDC and IPPs had finalized an amount of Rs45 billion to be undisputed overdue outstanding out of which the government had offered to pay these IPPs Rs8 billion every month for the next three months while the formula for the rest of the overdue amount would be mutually worked out between the government, the NTDC and the IPPs.