With the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) overstretched in fuel supplies on credit, the government asked the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) on Monday to be generous with water discharges to help contain an unending electricity shortage.
At a meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and attended by all stakeholders, including from ministries of water and power, petroleum and natural resources and PSO, it was pointed out that PSO’s receivables had touched Rs179 billion, despite payments of about Rs40bn during June.
This has simply put PSO in a difficult situation because it is not getting payments from state-owned power companies and independent power producers (IPPs) though they require maximum fuel supplies at this peak time of the year.
A strong move by the ministry of water and power to virtually close down CNG stations for diversion of 50MMCFD (million cubic feet per day) natural gas to the power sector was not entertained by the finance minister who was more concerned with political backlash.
