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THE power sector’s circular debt grew by Rs61bn in the last fiscal year, taking the total to roughly Rs1.67tr from Rs1.61tr a year before. This breaches the IMF funding programme condition to cap the stock at Rs1.61tr.
The Power Division blames a federal subsidy cut: Rs98bn was trimmed from the Rs893bn allocated for the sector, and officials say the debt would have fallen to Rs1.58tr without that cut. Perhaps so. But the explanation says more about the system’s fragility than its own defence. A power sector that needs fiscal transfers just to avoid piling up fresh arrears was never built to stand on its own. Successive governments have tried nearly everything.
Power purchase agreements with independent producers have been renegotiated more than once. Old, inefficient plants have shut down. Tariffs have climbed sharply. Banks have stepped in with fresh loans. Last year’s Rs1.23tr financing deal with 18 banks, serviced through a Rs3.23-per-unit surcharge on consumers, was billed as the largest such transaction in the country’s history. None of it has stopped the debt from growing again. Debt keeps moving from one ledger to another; it does not disappear.
