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Nawaz govt malignedHubco on politicalill-will against BB'

ASHRAF KHAN

KARACHI: Hub Power Company (Hubco) said on Tuesday that the deposed government of Nawaz Sharif had maligned the power company out of political vendetta against the government of Benazir Bhutto.

In a site-visit-briefing, Dr. Anjum Siddiqui, senior adviser and spokesman of the company, said since the present government, he believed, carried no political bias, the two-year tariff and other issues might be resolved soon.

He further said that the image of his company had been distorted through media trial. He reiterated the stance that the company should be regarded as innocent, in all under-hearing court cases, until proved otherwise.

The site visit was arranged by Hubco for the media men from across the country in a bid to rehabilitate its image, as well as to clear what it regards as fallacies regarding the company.

He denied all the allegations, including fraudulent amendment in the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Wapda during the Benazir Bhutto regime. He explained in detail the tariff structure and claimed that most of the tariff components had been in the control of the government and its organisations. The tariff cost variables including fuel oil, plant capacity utilization, and rupee devaluation had been beyond the control of the company, he said.

He strongly disputed the impression that the independent power projects (IPPs) were responsible for Wapda's financial mess. Wapda's own management, operational inefficiencies (T&D losses), corruption had resulted in its financial health, he said.

He, however, said that the poor financial health of Wapda was a risk for the company also, and Hubco had been committed to helping out Wapda, but through commercial settlement and not through regressive means. Anjum outlined a number of solutions to cut the tariff effectively: Conversion of Hubco onto gas; optimum plant capacity utilisation by Wapda through phasing out its own power plants; and supplying fuel oil on the international price level were few of them.

In reply to a question he said that the upcoming Hubco's board of directors meeting, to be held in Dubai, would discuss the routine company matters. He said that so far no formal invitation has been made by the government to reopen the tariff dialogue. However, informal visits and courtesy calls were being paid from both sides, he added.