Even after numerous "Chinese incursions" onto Indian soil. One during Xi Jinping's visit to India even, yet you're still begging for our help and our money. But you only took home half of what Pakistan got
What the Han giveth Pakistan, the Han taketh away, blessed be the name of the Han
There’s no free Chinese lunch... - The Hindu
Of the investments announced,
$33.8 billion is for thermal, hydro, solar and wind projects to tackle Pakistan’s energy crisis, which is now so bad that in March this year there was speculation in its media that it could bring the government down.
This looks like selfless assistance to a friend in need, but China has agreed more than once before to finance huge power projects in Pakistan, which its companies have then abandoned claiming that they were not feasible. In January, Chinese investors pulled out of a 6,600 MW power project in Gadani in Baluchistan, which was part of the Economic Corridor. In February, work stopped on five Chinese-backed power projects in the Punjab, which would also have generated 6,600 MW. These projects envisaged investments of about $16 billion, almost half of what those now announced will cost. The Han giveth and the Han taketh away, blessed be the name of the Han.
Pakistan’s installed capacity is 22,800 MW, more than enough for the current demand of 19,000 MW, but it produces only 12,000 MW. The problem is the circular debt, presently standing at $5 billion, that plagues its energy sector.
The Government pays power companies Rs.15 per kWh, charges the consumer Rs.10, but gets around Rs.4.5, since evasion is rampant. Unable in its penury to cope with a shortfall of Rs. 10.5 per kWh, it either stops or delays payments to the power companies, which cannot then pay fuel suppliers, which suspend shipments. Production spirals downwards.
Therefore,
adding production capacity will not end Pakistan’s power crisis; the new plants would join their brethren in rapid bankruptcy because they will not be paid. And they cannot be because no government there can close the gap between what it earns and what it pays; politics wedges it open.
The largest defaulters are the companies and estates owned by the ruling elite who will not pay their bills. Raising tariffs to try to recover part of the shortfall from the middle-class who do is political suicide for the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), with its base in the Punjab, which takes most of the power.
The Government admits that the Chinese companies pulled out of Gadani because they feared they would not be paid, even though it offered to set up a revolving fund for them. Unless its word has since become sterling in Chinese boardrooms, there is no reason why those now roped in should be more gullible.
