Miftah forms committee to address concerns of Chinese IPPs

The federal government on Friday formed a committee comprising representatives from the Finance and Power Divisions as well as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to hold meetings with Chinese Independent Power Producers (IPPs) on a regular basis to address and resolve their concerns.

The development comes after Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail presided over a meeting on the issue of payments to Chinese IPPs at the Finance Division, according to a statement issued on Friday.

The meeting discussed the issue of outstanding payments to Chinese IPPs in Pakistan and other hurdles faced by them.

As per the statement, Miftah shared that CPEC is a flagship project of friendship between Pakistan and China, and expressed resolve of the present government to provide all kind of facilities to Chinese investors. He further assured the Chinese IPPs authorities to address and resolve their concerns immediately.

The CEOs of Chinese IPPs expressed their satisfaction over addressing and resolving their issues.

In June, the Finance Ministry had urged the Power Division to address excess profitability by IPPs under CPEC at par with a settlement with other IPPs.

Finance Ministry raised the issue of CPEC–IPPs, while offering comments on one of the summaries of Power Division regarding opening of Revolving Account for the Chinese IPPs. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed the Power and Finance Divisions to convince Chinese power projects established under CPEC for staggering the payment of their outstanding dues of about Rs 350 billion.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan, Muhammad Jehanzeb Khan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Government Effectiveness, Tariq Fatemi SAPM, Zafaruddin Mehmood SAPM, Secretary Power, CEOs of Chinese IPPs and senior officers from Finance and Power Divisions attended the meeting.