Top Story January 15, 2021 ISLAMABAD: The government has projected that the circular debt will mount up to Rs2,805 billion till end June 2021, putting the bleeding power sector into a severe cash constraint situation, The News has learnt. The Ministry of Power made the projections on the basis of status quo approach as the government had not taken any action to rectify the situation. Top official sources said that the government is all set to increase the power tariff by hiking Rs1.90 per unit to revive the stalled IMF program under the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF). The government had agreed in principle to hike electricity tariff by Rs3.30 per unit in phases and in the first phase, it is going to announce power tariff to the tune of Rs1.90 per unit within the next few days. The multilateral creditors, including the IMF, World Bank and Asian Development Bank, always gave the prescription of hiking power tariffs to fix the problem. The PTI led government had already hiked tariff several times but that did not help fix the rising problem of the power sector. Official documents available with The News revealed that the circular debt was persistently on the rising trends and it might escalate to Rs 2,805 billion till end June 2020-21.