The chairman of the FPCCI Advisory Board and National Business Group Pakistan, the President of the Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain said on Monday that IPPs are playing a major role in destroying the country’s economy. He suggested stopping the establishment of new IPPs and giving state-owned IPPs standard rates for supply or electricity.
Mian Zahid Hussain stated that we should start with the power plants of our friendly country, China, to balance the agreements with IPPs. The veteran business leader told the business community that we should stop building new IPPs because only those in power need them. He warned that the country will go bankrupt if the private sector does not stop creating new power plants.
Mian Zahid Hussain stated that different IPPS have received payments ranging from Rs 750 to Rs 350 per unit, which is unacceptable.
Setting up IPPs is not a business; it is profiteering and robbery. We must explain to the public why we purchase electricity worth billions from various IPPs and pay trillions of rupees to some IPPs without generating a single unit.
According to Mian Zahid Hussain, IPPs receive payment through capacity charges without producing any electricity. Why agreements with IPPs are kept secret if they are transparent and beneficial to the country and nation? He demanded that we expose all IPP owners and recover looted wealth from white-collar robbers.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that due to heavy payments to IPPs, the government has nothing left to invest in health, education, the environment, and other important sectors, which means that these factories established in the private sector are causing poverty, ignorance, diseases, environmental pollution, and unevenness in the country.
The business leader stated that IPPs have generated hundreds of times the profit from their expenses, and their owners have contributed billions of rupees to their facilitators. Therefore, reviewing the contracts is necessary to save billions of rupees and lower taxes for employees and commoners.
Mian Zahid Hussain asserted that selling 10 rupee units of electricity for 60 rupees is ruining 24 crore people, enough to feed 40 families. Electricity bills are wiping out the middle class, indicating the authorities’ mismanagement. He added that comparing IPP contracts in Pakistan to those in other countries during the same period can highlight corruption in these contracts. He warned that without unity, the people would have no choice but to suffer, and the country would go bankrupt.
