Energy minister says power sector support cut to Rs750 billion

Federal Minister for Energy Awais Leghari has said government financial support to the power sector has fallen from Rs1,180 billion to Rs750 billion, presenting the drop as a reduction in the sector's circular debt, UrduPoint reported on Tuesday.

The report carried the minister's remarks as a headline and summary without a detailed statement attached. It did not say over what period the support was reduced, what the two figures are measured against, or which measures produced the saving. No notification, working paper or written statement setting out the new numbers was released with the remarks, and Skardu Times could not independently verify the figures.

Circular debt is the gap between the cost of producing and supplying electricity and the money recovered from consumers and the government. It sits as a payable on the books of power producers and state-owned distribution companies, and successive governments have promised to bring it down. How much of the total is retired rather than shifted between government accounts has been a long-running point of dispute in the power sector.

Leghari has in the past linked movement on the debt to steps taken by his ministry. The details of those steps were not part of Tuesday's report, and the minister did not say whether the reduction reflected cash retired, a refinancing, or a reclassification of the liability.

Separately, Express News carried a headline quoting Leghari as saying that work was under way to remove the 200-unit condition in electricity bills. That report also did not include the full statement, and it was not clear from it which slabs or categories of consumers the proposed change would cover. The 200-unit threshold has been used in earlier relief packages to decide who qualifies for protected or subsidised tariffs.

Neither report said when the power-sector support figures were compiled, whether they cover a fiscal year or a shorter period, or whether the change has been reflected in the accounts of the state-owned power companies. The ministry has not issued a statement on the record explaining the numbers.