Struggling to meet its budget deficit target of 3.8 per cent for the ongoing financial year, the cash-strapped government does not appear in a mood to pay back private power producers their bills (commonly known as ‘circular debt’) amounting to more than Rs250 billion — at least not anytime soon.
According to a letter sent to the 13 IPPs that had invoked sovereign guarantees on March 2 for the recovery of a portion of their long outstanding bills amounting to Rs48bn, the board has rejected their call. Besides, it has put them on a legal notice for running what it termed a false and malicious advertisement campaign against the government in newspapers.

Published in Dawn, 30th March, 2017

https://www.dawn.com/news/1323690/strapped-for-cash-govt-reluctant-to-pay-dues-of-ipps