Month: July 2020

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan decided during a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) Thursday to defer a move to hike up the electricity tariff in Karachi. In the CCoE meeting chaired by PM Imran here in Islamabad, it was decided not to go ahead with the Economic Coordination Committee’s (ECC) proposed move to jack up the power tariff by Rs2.89 for the K-Electric’s customers. The ECC had earlier approved the recommendation to increase the tariff. The premier’s decision came on the back of disagreements in the Cabinet…

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National Accountability Bureau Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has ordered an inquiry against power supply company K-Electric over excessive billing and loadshedding, according to a statement issued by the anti-graft body on Thursday. “The chairman has taken notice of media reports and public protests against overbilling and prolonged power outages in the metropolis,” read the statement. The accountability watchdog said that the power supply company was supposed to make investment according to a pact with the federal government. The NAB statement said that K-Electric is accused of not keeping its…

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China may have amassed a debt pile of as much as $42 billion in renewable energy subsides that have still gone unpaid to solar and wind power capacity developers, Bloomberg reports, citing a BOCI Research analyst, Tony Fei. “Without structural change to address the issue, the subsidy receivables in the whole industry would continue to grow and drag companies’ balance sheets and investment capabilities,” Fei said in a note earlier this month. China announced last year that it would cut the size of its clean energy subsidies for 2020 to…

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At the end of August, Islamic Republic of Iran (IRIN) Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif visited Beijing for what appeared to be a routine visit. However, soon after the visit, it was reported in the media that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had agreed to invest a vast sum of $400 billion in Iran. This would be the biggest investment that China has pledged to any one country as a part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). According to the details of the agreement, China has pledged to invest…

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The wire transfer was just one of millions that ricochet through the global financial system every day. Starting at the Zurich branch of a Russian state bank, $800 million zipped through Citigroup Inc. in New York before landing in a small bank in Lebanon. The payment came from Russian oil giant Rosneft PJSC –- a loan to the cash-strapped government of the breakaway region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq that would be repaid with barrels of crude. It was the opening tranche of a $6 billion torrent of cash that made a…

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