According to a Ministry of Finance official, the circular debt of the country has exceeded an alarming level of Rs 872 billion over the last one year.
According to the official, power sector had remained the major reason behind the increase in the circular debt and volume of debt in power sector witnessed an increase of 62 percent during the previous year and volume of liabilities of power sector had also exceeded from 100 billion rupees.
The official further revealed that Pakistan State Oil (PSO) is owed 1.5 billion dollars and power companies were major stakeholders. Furthermore, Pakistan International Airline (PIA) and Pakistan Railway were also debtors.
Moreover, PSO owed 1.23 billion dollars to different foreign and local oil suppliers and facing immense difficulties in payment of its outstanding dues.
Sources said that due to acute shortage of gas for power sector, it was largely dependent on imported oil and oil import bill had also exceeded.
The official also said that inefficiencies had been pointed out on different intervals but they had been unable to control their losses.
This created problems for companies to clear their liabilities with PSO and consequently, the entire cycle was suffering, he said.
