ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Wednesday observed that a number of Rental Power Plants (RPPs) have kept huge advance payments in their pockets without generating the required electricity.
He made observation while heading a two-Judge bench, seized with suo motu notice taken on application of Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, a PML-Q leader and Federal Minister for Housing, over awarding of RPPs.
During course of arguments of Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, counsel for Raishma and Kamokey Power Plants, the CJ remarked that they had been keeping huge amount paid in advance without producing the required power.
He also questioned as to how the contract with Raishma continued when it had ended on basis of not fulfilling the required capacity, besides, Rs four billion were paid in advance!
He said that they had to only see the transparency in the whole transaction.
The counsel apprised the bench that Raishma Power Plant had the capacity of generating 201MW electricity and after commercial operation date in December 2009, $ 55 million (amounting to more than Rs4 billion) was paid to them.
Pirzada said that they were issued notices and after re- negotiations, they had settled the issue and an MoU was also reached between the parties.
He said that they were providing around 300,000 KWH power free to the national grid since 2010.
The CJ told him that for the last two months they were producing 0.29 per cent which was nothing as compared to the set requirement.
The counsel replied that in October the company had supplied 18 million out of total 2,346 million KWH, besides Rs411 million was paid from company resources on fuel charges.
To bench's query, the counsel replied that the plant which was indigenous had undergone physical assessment at site.
He informed that they were producing per KWH at cost of 4.98 cent.
Responding to another question regarding reduction in production to 19MW against 201MW, he said that the required equipment could not arrive.
The Chief Justice remarked whether it was not a negligence on part of the concerned authorities!
"When machinery is not capable of meeting the required capacity, how Rs four billion were paid, where is the transparency! he posed a question.
Pirzada replied that nine machines out of total 22 had been producing 100 MWs and they had informed the concerned authorities about all these factors.
Comments
Comments are closed.