ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan said that the consumers will pay inflated electricity bills for two more months (Sept-Oct) and from November the amount of bills will start declining.
Talking to journalists he said that the electricity bills for the months of Sept and Oct will remain at the same level of August. In the month of August, the consumers have received double amount of their electricity bills as the government increased tarif and FCA to extort Rs155 billion additional revenue from the consumers.
The minister conceded the power bills in July (payable in August) were exorbitant owing to increased consumption and relatively higher FCAs in May. He agreed to investigate if higher units had also been built into the billing for FCAs or for lack of proper meter reading in April or May.
Dastgir Khan also said the government had notified Rs3.50 per unit increase in national base electricity tariff to meet the IMF requirement. He, however, promised to investigate complaints of overbilling on account of monthly fuel cost adjustments (FCAs) in the current bills.
Power minister said the government would engage with Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi not to remove time restrictions on businesses because energy conservation was a national issue.
