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[ad_1] ISLAMABAD: China has agreed to reschedule over $2 billion publicly guaranteed debt of Pakistan for a period of two years, providing a major relief to the government that is in the process of rebuilding foreign exchange reserves through fresh loans and rolling over maturing debt. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Thursday approved the revised terms of the agreement reached between Islamabad and Beijing, according to senior Pakistani officials. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar chaired the meeting. Pakistan has built two nuclear power plants in Karachi that have a combined generation capacity of 2,117 megawatts. The total cost of the plants is $9.5 billion, including the $6.5 billion financing from China. The loan was extended by the Export-Import (Exim) Bank of China. Of $2 billion, over $625 million was maturing in this fiscal year that will now be paused. The $6.5 billion is a publicly guaranteed debt and over $2 billion repayments were maturing i

[ad_1] ISLAMABAD: The coalition government has added a net Rs419 billion to the power sector circular debt during the first eight months of this fiscal year, pushing the total circular debt to Rs2.67 trillion despite significantly increasing electricity prices last year. The average per month increase in circular debt during the July-February period, of FY2022-23, was a colossal Rs52.4 billion, according to sources in the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Energy. The stock of circular debt at the beginning of the fiscal year was Rs2.253 trillion, which mushroomed to Rs2.67 trillion, they added. As part of the condition set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, the coalition government increased electricity prices by Rs7.91 per unit in July last year. The move, however, failed to stem the growth of circular debt. Sources said that the payables to power producers have jumped from Rs1.35 trillion in June last year to Rs1.8 trillion at the end of February –a