Govt’s own policies hurdle in LNG power plants’ privatisation

The Privatisation Commission is facing serious problems in executing the plan to hand over LNG power plants to private sector with the ambiguous government policies being the main hurdle, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Thursday.

Although a controversial move, the PTI government had estimated to earn $2 billion by privatising these power plants established by the PML-N government at Haveli Bahadur Shah and Baloki.

But the unclear government policies related to the power sector are not the only thing affecting its own plan with the LNG tariff structure and the IPPs (independent power producers) report also playing a role in this stalemate.

This report on IPPs was prepared by the PTI government, in which they have been accused of earning illegal profits worth billions of rupees. However, the suggestion regarding the formation of an inquiry commission for further probe didn’t materialise as the government chose to enter into a dialogue with the energy sector players.

Sources say the necessary explanation about the process hasn’t been provided while not only the IPPs report but also the agreement signed with them are halting the privatisation.

Meanwhile, there is no clarity about the profit to be earned in dollars by the LNG power plants and even the mechanism for take and pay has not been defined so far.