ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Friday approved further Rs7.91 per unit increase in ‘uniform national tariff’ after Pakistan Muslim League (N) led federal government last Tuesday filed a petition with the regulatory body seeking Rs7.91 per unit hike in basic power tariff.
It is worth noting that NEPRA on July 07, had approved in power tariff by Rs7.90 per unit. The increase was made under fuel adjustment charges (FAC) for the month of June.
The Nepra had conducted the public hearing on the government request on July 20 and within 48 hours approved it without any change. “The authority has approved the request of the federal government,” an announcement said. The Power Division would now send the notification to the Discos for implementation with immediate effect.
The tariff increase would generate additional revenue of Rs893 billion in 2022-23 to meet the annual revenue requirement of about Rs2.52 trillion to power companies, excluding KE besides providing a general sales tax of more than Rs425bn to the government.
“As per the request, the consumer-end tariff will be increased in three phases i.e. July, Aug-Sept and October onward,” said a Nepra announcement. No increase has been proposed for lifeline (up to 100 units) and protected category of consumers (101-200 units per month), it added.
The Nepra announcement said the decision would be applicable with the government notification. As such, the average tariff increase would become effective at the rate of Rs3.50 per unit during the current month, followed by another Rs3.50 per unit in August-September billing and the remaining 91 paisa per unit in October. The rates would be equally applied across the country, including K-Electric.
The Nepra said it had already determined different consumer-end for each power distribution company (ex-Wapda Discos) on June 2 for this fiscal year under which “national average tariff is now Rs24.82 per kWh, higher by Rs7.91per kWh than the earlier determined national average tariff of Rs16.91/kWh”. Based on this determination, the government requested approval of a uniform consumer-end tariff after incorporating subsidies and surcharges for all the ex-Wapda Discos and K-Electric.
The tariff for certain high-consumption residential consumers has been increased by Rs11 per unit to cover the additional burden of consumers with lower consumption. The approved rate under the ‘tariff rebasing 2022-23” for consumers with a monthly consumption slab of 101-200 units and above is significantly higher than Rs7.91 per unit increase in the uniform national average.
