Bankrupt power March 7, 2021 The power sector is the foundation of an economy. Red alert: Pakistan’s power sector – sans government subsidies – is bankrupt. The real culprit behind this bankruptcy is: gross misgovernance. This gross misgovernance shows up as: circular debt and capacity payments (the two are indeed related). Circular debt has risen from Rs1.1 trillion in 2018 to Rs2.4 trillion – and is projected to hit Rs4 trillion by 2025. Capacity payments – payments made for not utilising the installed power capacity – have gone up from Rs664 billion to Rs900 billion, and are projected to hit Rs1.5 trillion a year in the next couple of years. Imagine, capacity payments amount to 3 percent of Pakistan’s GDP. Lo and behold, circular debt is projected to hit a worrisome 8 percent of GDP.