ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has shown great concerns over the rising circular debt of power sector which has reached Rs573 billion as it would give rise to loadshedding thus badly affecting the production activities.

The ICCI has called upon the government to take urgent measures to clear circular debt in order to save the economy from its damaging consequences, according to a press statement issued here.

Sheikh Amir Waheed, president, ICCI said that the circular debt had exceeded Rs500 billion in May 2013 and the current government after assuming power had cleared circular debt of Rs480 billion in July 2013 after which it was hoped that this issue would not rear its head again. However, contrary to the expectations, circular debt has again crossed Rs500 billion in May 2018 which showed that no concrete measures were taken to resolve this critical issue.

He said that Pakistan was producing about 9000 MW electricity through oil fuel while the receivables of PSO have increased to over Rs300 billion. He was afraid that if PSO's payments were not cleared, it would not be in a position to ensure oil supply due to which the oil-based electricity would disappear from the system creating serious power crisis in the country. "It would badly affect the production activities, exports, employment and growth in the country," he said.

He emphasized that the government should devise a comprehensive strategy to resolve all these issues in order to save the economy from further damages.

Muhammad Naveed Malik Senior Vice President and Nisar Mirza vice president, ICCI said that as per figures of Pakistan Electric Power Company, there were total 8631 feeders in the country majority of which were facing 10 percent losses while some feeders were facing 80 percent losses.

They stressed upon the government to develop a mechanism to control the distribution and transmission losses along with feeders' losses that would bring significant improvement in power supply situation enabling the business and industry to flourish in the country.