Minister rules out terminating contracts with IPPs

Federal Minister for Energy Awais Leghari on Monday ruled out the prospect of revisiting agreements with the Independent Power Producers (IPPs), despite constant pressure brought on by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) sit-in in the capital protesting excessive power rates.
Awais Leghari, the federal minister of energy, told the media that under no circumstances will the government revisit the agreements with IPPs.
He claimed that by unilaterally terminating the contracts, the government was unable to pay a $900 million fine, as was the case with Reco Diq.
“The administration is acting to lower the tariff charges. IPPs and the government may bargain over capacity payments. Capacity payments would have been 800 billion rupees instead of 2100 billion if the dollar rate had not gone up, the man asserted.