Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has called upon the government to take concrete measures for permanent solution of circular debt issue, which is holding back the country from achieving economic growth up to its potential.

Mr.Zahid Maqbool, President, ICCI said lingering circular debt issue is taking a heavy toll on overall economy by negatively impacting industrial and production activities in the country. He said it is the need of the hour that all possible efforts should be made to resolve this chronic issue once for all to save the economy from further damage.
 
He also showed great concerns over PSO’s dwindling reserves of petrol and diesel as PSO is reportedly left with only 3 days petrol reserves and 11 days stock of diesel. He said this precarious situation would further deteriorate if government doesn’t move quickly to clear dues of PSO, which have now reached Rs.130 billion.

Mr.Zahid Maqbool said that instead of addressing the root cause of circular debt, government has so far been resorting to ad hoc measures to tackle this issue in the form of making partial payments. However, this approach has not contributed to resolving the problem because in the absence of concrete measures, circular debt again starts building up after some days.

He said government should work out a proper mechanism to curtail the accumulation of circular. For this purpose, resolving the problems of outstanding bills of different public entities is the key to end debt accumulation and to avoid electricity outages that have adversely affected normal life and all sectors of the economy.

He said that a domestic, commercial or industrial consumer gets electricity or gas service disconnected in case of defaulting on bill payment. However, big defaulters of public sector are spared of such actions.

ICCI President said that this approach would never work in the interest of the country and government should make all to pay their dues to utility companies, which will help in ending circular debt and ultimately coping with the serious problem of power shortage.