LAHORE: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Acting President Abdul Mohamin Khan on Tuesday announced that on behalf of the entire business, industry and trade community of Pakistan, the FPCCI will plead the case of capacity charges of the IPPs to the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) and Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).
In a media statement issued here, he highlighted that despite the repeated expression of its concerns and apprehensions pertaining to the IPPs capacity charges, the business community was still not being taken on board for the consultative process to resolve the issue at the earliest.
The acting FPCCI chief presented the charter of demands vis-à-vis power sector: (i) forensic audit of independent power producers (IPPs) should be conducted (ii) capacity charges of the IPPs should be abolished and only generated electricity should be paid (iii) power purchase agreements with the IPPs should be renegotiated in a fair and transparent manner.
The FPCCI
demanded that a comprehensive review of the IPP agreements; price re-evaluation within legal bounds and improved oversight to prevent over-invoicing were utmost needed. The government should devise a strategy to deal with the IPPs and ensure affordable electricity prices for the industry in the national interests, he suggested.