PAC seeks details of IPP accords

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee sought details of all agreements with Independent Power Producers on Wednesday. The committee held its meeting presided over by Chairman Noor Alam Khan in which the audit paras related to the Cabinet Division and its attached departments of OGRA, NEPRA and PTA for the 2019-20 were examined.

While seeking the details of all the agreements with IPPs, PAC Chairman Noor Alam Khan said some IPPs were being paid even though they were not generating electricity. “When people are not getting electricity, then why to give money to IPPs,” he asked.

The chairman of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) said CPP deals with IPPs on capacity payment charges. The chairman NEPRA said Discos have a 13% discount on line losses but practically the line losses are 17%, while 65% of electricity was being stolen from Qesco.

The chairman NEPRA told the committee that the electricity consumers are suffering from net metering. The consumers are also generating and selling their electricity and the government is under pressure to take electricity from the consumers despite losses. He told the committee that the government charges Rs12.50 paisa per unit for electricity with net metering but earlier, they were being provided electricity at Rs16.50 per unit. Now the price of electricity has gone further up by Rs7.75 per unit.

He told the committee that there is a capacity to generate 41,000 MW of electricity. At this, PAC member Senator Salim Mandviwalla asked that if it is so, then why loadshedding was taking place. The chairman NEPRA replied it was due to shortage of fuel. Chairman PAC Noor Alam Khan said that cheap electricity was available in the world but in Pakistan it was more expensive. “Some IPPs are also paid from the people's pockets for not generating electricity in the name of capacity payment,” he said.

The PAC also took notice of complaints that regulatory bodies like OGRA and NEPRA were not cooperating with the Auditor General of Pakistan for the audit. The chairman made it clear that any department that took the government budget had to undergo audit. Secretary Cabinet Division Ahmed Nawaz Sukhaira told the committee that the regulatory authorities wanted to go to court on the issue but they were stopped.

The chairman sought a reply on the issue from chairman OGRA who said the performance audit of OGRA and NEPRA was a professional job. The secretary Cabinet Division assured the PAC to take up the stance of the regulatory bodies and PAC to the relevant forum for decision.

During the meeting, the chairman PTA said 345 cases of various mobile and IT companies against the PTA were pending in the courts, while the names of many defaulters were also put on the ECL.

To a query of PAC member Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed regarding anti-Pakistan content being displayed on Twitter and Facebook, the chairman PTA said 12 to 13,000 complaints regarding objectionable content were sent to different platforms every month.

The chairman PTA said much of the objectionable content originated from fake accounts. Twitter, he said, takes a little longer to take action on such accounts while Facebook takes quick action. He said 70 per cent of the objectionable content was removed. He told the committee there are 115 million internet users in the country, of which 113 million use internet on mobile phones. “We have not yet received a policy directive on 5G,” he told the committee.