ISLAMABAD: During the last five years, the share of Public Sector GENCOs in total power generation has fallen from 19.5 per cent to 12.19 percent while the share of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) has risen steadily from 39.7 percent to 43.3percent. This was stated by the Chairman of Independent Power Producers Mr. Qasim Niaz on Thrusday while giving a briefing to media on IPPs viz-a-viz Power Sector in Islamabad. He said that 47,201 GWh out of the total 109,059 GWh (43.3%) of electricity generation put on the national grid in last year was produced by IPPs. “IPPs have installed a generation capacity of 9,192 MW (37%) out of 24,823 MW, however, the share of the entire private sector is 11509 MW (46.36 %)” he added. Qasim stated IPPs have produced 46,163 GWh power from thermal energy while total thermal power generation is 69,988 GWh. IPPs are far ahead of GENCOS in power plant performance indicators such as load factors, utilisation factor, capacity factors and availability factors. He clarified some objections which were raised by the Auditor General’s Office regarding the payment of Rs. 480 billion on account of circular debt in June 2013. Qasim Niaz said that the government authorised payment of Rs 480 billion to clear the long outstanding Circular Debt in 2013 consisting of payments owed to various energy sector entities including IPPs, government owned thermal power plants (GENCOs) and oil companies for fuel supplied to power plants. However, since a controversy developed surrounding these payments, the Auditor General of Pakistan conducted a special audit and presented a report to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly. The Auditor General’s Office in this report mostly points to some irregularities in the procedure followed by the government while making these payments, but there is no accusation of the payments being malafide, undue, fraudulent or in excess of the contractual agreements with IPPs. The basic objection highlighted by the report is that the payment of Rs.342 billion for settlement of circular debt without a pre-audit by AGPR was irregular.