ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday sought a report from the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on agreements signed with independent power producers (IPPs).

At a meeting held at the Parliament House, the PAC discussed audit paras related to authorities working under the administrative control of Cabinet Division.

Briefing the committee, Nepra chairman Tauseef Farooqi said the country had the capacity to produce 41,000 megawatts of electricity.

He said the current power outages in the country were due to insufficient supply of oil to power generating plants. PAC chairman Noor Alam Khan asked the Nepra chairman how industries of the country would function under such circumstances.

Mr Farooqi said that some IPPs were being paid despite the fact that their supplied electricity was not being used. The PAC chairman ordered the Nepra chairman to submit details of the IPPs’ agreements in the next meeting of the committee.

The Nepra chairman told the meeting that Quetta topped the list of power theft regions as Qesco was facing 65pc power losses.

The PAC chairman said it had come to his knowledge that audit exercise was not carried out in Ogra and Nepra and wondered how the system could work without the audit of national institutions.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2022