‘Give-and-take’ arrangement: Chinese firm accuses authorities of forcing it to accept their conditions

According to Business Recorder, China Huaneng has accused Pakistani authorities of pushing it to accept a reciprocal deal before they clear long-pending capacity payment deductions at its 1,320-MW Sahiwal coal-fired plant. Citing sources in the Planning Ministry, the paper said chief executive Liu Zengrui has appealed to the Prime Minister's Office and to CPPA-G, the body that buys the plant's electricity and pays the company.

The company attributes the FY2022-23 deductions to severe foreign-exchange shortages that prevented timely coal payments to overseas suppliers, cutting generation availability. It points to a comparable CPEC project whose capacity payments were approved and released by the Economic Coordination Committee, and asks that its own claim be assessed independently. Instead, it says CPPA officials have tied progress to unrelated conditions, leaving the issue unresolved for roughly four years.

Separately, the paper reported that the Energy Task Force is seeking discounts from Chinese IPPs, but insiders said neither the Chinese government nor the IPPs were taking the effort seriously. The move comes as the government seeks concessions from power producers to ease the financial burden on the power sector.