On Tuesday, November 14, 2023, Dr Naveed Arshad, Associate Professor and Director of the National Center in Big Data and Cloud Computing (NCBC) at Lahore University of Management Sciences delivered an Extension Lecture to the participants of 34^th SMC on “Demystifying Circular Debt”.

The eminent guest speaker spoke about the high circular debt of Rs. 2.31 trillion in the power sector. He unpacked various hidden factors which had led to the piling up of circular debt. These included low demand vs high generation capacity adding to overall cost. Massive seasonal variations between summer and winter seasons along with energy pricing also has added to this burden. Reliance on expensive imported fuels was also highlighted by the guest speaker. The guest speaker was of the view that increasing productive load was important to control circular debt. In the end the guest speaker shared certain short term and long-term measures including financial measures and tariff re-design to overcome the issue of circular debt. He also suggested shifting transportation to electricity.