NEPRA fines CPPA-G Rs10 million over failure to impose Rs77 billion damages on WAPDA

NEPRA has fined the Central Power Purchasing Agency-Guarantee Limited (CPPA-G) Rs10 million, Profit by Pakistan Today reported, citing The News. The penalty follows years in which the agency failed to enforce roughly Rs77 billion in liquidated damages on WAPDA, linked to excessive shutdowns at 10 big hydropower facilities.

CPPA-G had pointed to weak payments from distribution companies, a possible Rs175 billion in interest claims from WAPDA, circular debt and gaps in outage records to justify the delay. NEPRA dismissed those arguments and treated the damages as a binding term of the Power Purchase Agreement rather than an optional step. The regulator also highlighted that the purchaser had already withheld Rs4.658 billion from WAPDA's capacity payments over secured outages, which showed it could enforce such provisions.

NEPRA Chairman Waseem Mukhtar dissented, arguing that the Rs175 billion exposure from interest claims far exceeded the roughly Rs77 billion in damages and could deepen circular debt. CPPA-G has 15 days to settle the Rs10 million penalty, and if it does not, NEPRA can recover the sum as arrears of land revenue.