AMMAN — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on
Friday said that the government is preparing to update the National Electric
Power Company’s (NEPCO) financial sustainability roadmap, which is funded by
the World Bank, to be approved in the first half of 2022, according to
Al-Mamlaka TV.
اضافة اعلان
A recent report
by the IMF said that the roadmap will look into the option of transferring
NEPCO’s debts to the Ministry of Finance in order to reduce its costs.
“The roadmap
also might transfer some of NEPCO’s debts to the central government in order to
facilitate refunding the debts due in 2022 and 2023 with a lower cost and
longer due dates, in addition to reducing the pressure on the national exchange
system,” said the report, pointing out that this will require enhancing the
companies’ participation in NEPCO’s affairs, including in the current reforms
which are supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The report also
stressed that the ongoing reform efforts are meant to ensure NEPCO’s financial
stability, adding that Jordan signed agreements to export electricity to
neighboring countries, including Iraq and Lebanon. Nevertheless, “completing
the regional infrastructure overhaul will be important to start the export
process”.
According to the
report, NEPCO’s losses in 2021 were lower than the estimates, but they are
bound to increase in 2022. Moreover, the shift in demand from the business
sector to the household sector during the lockdowns reduced NEPCO’s revenues in
the first half of 2021, said the report.
“Despite that,
the losses were lower than expected due to the delay in launching the Oil Shale
Plant, at Attarat Power Company (which was expected to be launched in the
middle of 2021). Meanwhile, the long-term supply contract for natural oil
protected NEPCO from the rise in global prices,” according to the report, which
said that NEPCO’s losses will be limited to 0.5 percent of the GDP in 2021,
while they are expected to rise to 1 percent of the GDP in 2022 as a result of
Attarat Company’s joining the production line, the report pointed out.
It also said
that NEPCO kept accumulating delayed payments (JD90 million at the end of
September); hence, the electricity sector accumulated dues were not duly paid
in June and September.
Meanwhile,
according to Ammon News, the IMF said on Friday that about 15 percent of Jordanian
families might be denied partial or complete access to electricity subsidies
once the new electricity tariffs start being levied.
According to the IMF, the new electricity tariffs
will be charged by the government as of the end of March 2022 with the aim of
enhancing private sector competitiveness and reducing cross-subsidization.
At the same
time, electricity tariffs for businesses, mostly in the commercial and
industrial sectors, are going to be lowered; the planned reductions would
amount to JD40 million per year.
The report also pointed
out that the government is preparing to launch an online platform so that
individuals may lodge complaints and request subsidized electricity.
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