Officials of the Power Division gave details of taxes levied in electricity bills to the Senate Standing Committee on Power.
A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Power was held under the chairmanship of Senator Saifullah Abro, which was also attended by officials of the Ministry of Power Division.
Chairman Committee Saifullah Abro asked why the price of electricity has increased.
Joint Secretary Power Finance Mahfooz Bhatti said that the capacity payments in the last financial year were Rs1300 billion while in the current financial year the capacity payments of the power sector are estimated to be Rs2000 billion.
Officials of the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CCPA) told the Senate committee that the increase of Rs500 billion in capacity payment is due to the exchange rate of dollar and rupee.
Saifullah Abro asked that if the agreements with IPPs were not in dollars, electricity would not have been expensive, while Senator Bahramand asked whether whenever the dollar came down, the electricity prices were also reduced.
Power Division officials said that it was given in quarterly adjustment, to which Senator Bahramand said that do not just talk about it. He demanded to show documentation about that.
Senator Saifullah Niazi said that there are different times for the contracts of different IPPs to expire, on which the officials of the Power Division said that the 1994 IPPs agreements will end in 2027.
Saifullah Niazi asked, “When will these IPPs’ agreements be saved?” While Senator Bahramand said that people are burning bills, who is responsible, protests are taking place from Khyber to Karachi, the situation is bad and going towards civil disobedience, the country is weakening, who is responsible for it.
Senator Fida Muhammad asked how many taxes are there on the electricity bill, on which the officials of the Power Division said that there are different types of taxes, there are seven types of taxes on the bills, including GST, income tax and withholding tax.
Committee Chairman Saifullah Abro said that the power division officials were not able to answer our questions, what the power division must have told the Prime Minister on electricity tomorrow, reduce the profits of IPPs.
Senator Saifullah Niazi said that only the price of electricity should be given to those who take electricity, while Senator Saifullah Abro said that if the capacity payments are not stopped, then there is a disaster, IPPs should not be considered as a ghost, reduce the price of electricity is the problem of the future of our children.
