Islamabad - The government has yesterday sought another two days from the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to resolve the issue of overdue invoices.

The government also asked the IPPs to stop the publication of advertisement against it on the overdue issue as it damaging its image, official sources told The Nation.

In the meeting between 13 IPPs and the government at Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB), the power producers have demanded immediate payment. The government demanded two days to sort it out, the sources said.

To avoid the encashment of the sovereign guarantees, the government was pursuing these IPPs to review its decision. To resolve the issue of overdue amount the PPIB has invited these IPPs, who have sent notices to invoke sovereign guarantee.

Earlier, this month about 13 independent power producers (IPPs), who have overdue amount of around Rs242 billion, have invoked sovereign guarantees and served a final notice to the government, The IPPs wanted to recover unpaid overdue invoices of more than Rs48 billion immediately.

This is the fourth time that IPPs have initiated process to revoke their sovereign guarantees for recovery of their pending payments. As per the rule there is 10 days, after the notice, with the government to clear the dues the dues or else the IPPs will have the right to get sovereign guarantees encashment.

 The encashment of the sovereign guarantee will mean the collapse of the government as it is hundreds of billions of rupees, the source said.

Out of the total due amount of Rs 444 billion, the government has released Rs30 billion to 50 IPPs and the 13 power producers have just received only Rs13.440 billion against the overdue invoices of worth Rs48 billion.

To review the decision of invoking the sovereign guarantees, the 13 Independent Power Producers (IPPs) have demanded the government pay at least the overdue invoices immediately.

The IPPs that have served final notices include the IPPs that are established under the 1994 and 2002 power policies includes, Pakgen Power (Rs7.778 billion), Liberty Power (Rs5.361 billion), Hubco Narowal (Rs5.024 billion), Atlas Power (Rs4.555 billion), Lal Pir Power (Rs4.552 billion), Nishat Power (Rs4.881 billion), Kohinoor Energy (2.306 billion), Attock Gen Ltd (Rs4.449 billion), Nishat Chunian Power (Rs4.16 billion), Saif Power (Rs1.503 billion), Sapphire Electric (Rs1.396 billion), Orient Power (Rs1.18 billion) and Halmore Power GCL (880 million).