FAISALABAD   -   Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) has demanded withdrawal of the agreements signed with the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) “in greater national interest”.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Dr Sajjad Arshad, acting FCCI president, said the IPPs started in 1994 when the country was experiencing the worst-ever loadshedding. Hubco was the first IPP while the installed capacity of IPPs jumped from 3,000-MW to 20,000-MW in 2013. It would swell to 43,000-MW in 2024 whereas the consumption of electricity was still restricted to only 13,000-MW. He said that some IPPs were getting billions of rupees without producing even a single unit of electricity under the head of capacity charges. Hence, the price of electricity had touched the figure of Rs 70-80 per unit only due to the addition of unrealistic capacity charges. He said that the IMF package had further aggravated the situation which opened the floodgates of taxes and the majority of people were unable to pay their electricity bills.

The FCCI representative regretted that the FBR had been empowered to issue non-bailable arrest warrants for businessmen. He said that people following the prophetic profession of trading were being dubbed as thieves, though they were paying hefty taxes to run the state institutions. He said the situation had forced them to migrate to other countries or dump their savings and investments in banks instead of injecting them into the economy. “Bank’s deposits have crossed the limit of 30 trillion due to this reason,” he said and added that 25pc industry had been closed rendering millions of workers jobless and the situation was fomenting lawlessness in the country. He said that this year Rs 2100 billion were paid as capacity charges to the IPPs which would become Rs. 2800b the next year and the process would continue till 2030. This situation had crippled the industrial and business sectors in addition to making life of common man miserable, he added.

Dr Sajjad Arshad said the circular debt of the power sector had reached Rs. 5.42 trillion due to the agreements. The government must take bold decision and rescind, renegotiate, amend or reschedule the agreements with the IPPs on top priority basis. Otherwise, industrial and traders’ organisations may start movement individually or collectively against unbearable capacity charges paid to the IPPs, he apprehended. Responding to a question, he said that the business community consists of law-abiding citizens and they avoid protestation but the situation is pushing them to take extreme steps by starting protests and sit-ins. Responding to yet another question, he clarified that the FCCI is an apolitical forum and it would not become part of any protest initiated by a political party. Later, Vice President FCCI Hajji Muhammad Aslam Bhalli said that high tariff of electricity had become the number one issue of the public at large and we must make collaborative efforts to resolve the problem. He criticised the policy rate of 22pc and said that it has inspired people to deposit their investment in banks instead of doing business which is imperative to generate much-needed industrial and commercial activities.