ISLAMABAD: Finance Ministry is disturbed on nonpayment of overdue amount to 1320 MW coal-fired coal power plant at Port Qasim despite a letter from former Prime Minister of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasim Bin Jaber AI Thani.
Finance Ministry, in a letter to Prime Minister Office, has cited reference Prime Minister’s Office’s letter of May 15, 2024 along with a self-explanatory letter from Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasim Bin Jaber AI Thani to the Prime Minister and subsequent reminder of July 24,2024 whereby it has been stated that his company has not received any dividends on account of delay in the payment of receivables.
According to Finance Ministry, the matter is related to CPPA-G payables towards CPEC IPPs, Port Qasim Power Plant being one of them where Qatar has shareholding of 49%.
The payables of CPPA-G towards CPEC-IPPs as of June 3, 2024, stood at Rs.477 billion. The total receivables of Port Qasim Electric Power (coal) for the same period are around Rs.82 billion.
Finance Ministry has further stated that the matter of clearing payables of CPEC plants was raised before Prime Minister’s visit to China. Finance Division promptly released funds amounting to Rs.227 billion (AJK Rs.50 bn, KE- anears Rs.70 bn & KE-TDS Advance Rs.102 bn) before visit of Prime Minister in May,2024. This additional liquidity to power sector was utilized to settle the CPEC-IPPs receivable to the extent of Rs.158 billion.
Finance Ministry has recommended to the Prime Minister Office that input on Emir of Qatar may be obtained from Power Division.
