LAHORE: The Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) owes more than Rs40 billion to the Water and Power Development Authority — the largest and cheapest supplier of electricity. The News has learnt that WAPDA, which a year back controlled PEPCO, is facing a severe financial crunch because PEPCO has withheld over Rs40 billion for hydro electricity that the authority regularly supplies to it like Independent Power Producers.The engineering experts warned that withholding WAPDA s electricity dues would adversely affect the health of water reservoirs and power generation capacity of the authority. WAPDA supplies up to 6,500 megawatts of electricity to PEPCO during peak hydro-generation. All the IPPs combined supply less power to PEPCO. The IPPs charge Rs5-7 per unit from the power company. They said circular debt earlier created by PEPCO due to non-payment to IPPs resulted in irreversible closure of some independent power generation unit and also impacted the efficiencies of Pakistan State Oil and oil refineries as impact of non-payment to the IPPs was passed on to the PSO that in turn passed it on to oil refineries. In case of WAPDA, the non-payment of dues by PEPCO would hit the vital water reservoirs of the country. It was learnt that WAPDA is somehow maintaining the dams and power generators up till now but experts warned that the authority would soon consume all its resources and reserves that would affect the maintenance of large dams if the withheld payments are not released. They said it would also adversely impact the irrigation system of the country and many development projects for storing water and producing hydroelectric power.
The Aussie rose to its mid-August highs against the Japanese yen today as the traders listened to the analysts’ speculations that the central bank has opened a carry trade opportunity with the interest rate hike.
The U.S. dollar declined today against the euro and the other major currencies as the global economic recovery is looking more sound with the stock markets rising and the business/consumer confidence going up worldwide.
The Chilean currency was one of the few traded in foreign-exchange markets that managed to continue a rally versus the greenback, sparked yesterday by a wave of risk appetite that helped emergent market currencies to climb, today, the peso climbed on improved domestic data.
After touching the highest level in 2009 as commodities and stocks climbed and the greenback lost appeal yesterday, the loonie did not manage to sustain its levels and dropped as the crude oil declined today.
The yen managed to climb versus several main traded currencies and hit the highest level versus the U.S. dollar after Japanese policy makers affirmed that a strong currency will not impact the country’s economy negatively.
The Brazilian real continue to set new record highs for 2009 today as risk appetite emerged influenced by a Australian central bank decision to raise its benchmark interest rates, fact which was interpreted as an evident sign of economic improvement globally.
The pound was once again hit by negative domestic data which forced the British currency down versus the euro, Swiss franc as manufacturing in the country declined to the lowest level in more than a decade, raising concerns about the British economic future.