2024-07-12 13:46:14
IslamabadChina has set up many projects in Pakistan in the last few years. Pakistan has to pay a huge amount to China for these. Pakistan, which is facing a bad economic situation, is unable to pay the interest on this huge loan. In such a situation, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Mohammad Aurangzeb and Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal have reached China. Both the Pakistani ministers have gone to request the Chinese government to restructure the energy loan of $ 15 billion (reduce the interest rate and increase the repayment period). Pakistan has not yet received any assurance from China, on the other hand, questions are being raised in Islamabad as to what benefit they have received from all these projects.
Pakistan’s Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, who is in China, admitted in an interview with Dunya TV’s Kamran Khan that his country is not in a position to repay the debt. He said that Pakistan is facing difficulty in paying Chinese loans for independent power projects (IPPs) built under CPEC. The situation is very difficult regarding the payment of IPP profits to China from Pakistan and there is almost a situation of default. However, Ahsan Iqbal, who went to convince the Chinese leadership for a bailout package, is hopeful that China will come to Pakistan’s rescue as he fully understands the economic difficulties Pakistan is facing today.
Experts raised questions
Talking to Dunya TV, Pakistani experts have raised questions on this project. Experts say that the reality of these IPPs is that even after 10 years of setting up several power plants in Pakistan under the CPEC program, the country is facing the worst energy crisis in its history. People are forced to buy expensive electricity for domestic consumption and businesses.
An energy expert said that any independent audit would confirm that the Chinese power plants were overpriced from the beginning. Along with this, China was also promised a 17 percent dollar-denominated return. Pakistan was trapped in this from the beginning and it is still unable to get out of it. The economic challenges of the Pak government have increased manifold in the recent past. On the other hand, China’s debt is creating problems for it.