ISLAMABAD: In less than a week’s time, the federal government has sought another power tariff hike from the National Electric Power Regularity Authority or Nepra to increase the per-unit price of electricity up to 95 paisas/unit.
Last week, NEPRA had already announced more than four rupees/unit increase in power tariff using pretext of the fuel adjustment price/cost which will be extorted from the consumers with Jan-2022 bills to be payable in February.
On social media, the extortion of money from consumers in the name of fuel price adjustment has emerged as a top trend in recent days following NEPRA’s frequent FCAs being incorporated in the consumers bills every month just to raise maximum revenue and taxes for the government.
According to Nepra, the government wants to increase the electricity prices for all slabs.
- Consumers who are using 100 units are likely to pay 8 paisas per unit.
- 18 paisas for 101-200 units consumers
- 48 paisas for 201-300 units consumers
- 95 paisas for 301-700 units consumers
Nepra will review the request on January 24 and make a decision.
However, the decision will deprive domestic consumers of Rs20 billion in subsidies, through this will not be applicable to K-Electric consumers.
Federal Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar revealed that the government had asked Nepra to increase it again to stem Pakistan’s soaring circular debt.
“An increase of Rs1.39 a unit will be applicable to power tariff from November 1,” he said. “This will not be applicable to consumers using less than 200 units of electricity.”
Importantly, the government is using IMF dictation to frequently increase power nd gas tariffs. The International Monetary Fund has asked Pakistan to increase electricity tariffs to tackle circular debt and the PTI government was readily available to comply with conditions linked to its financial bailout from the Fund.
The IMF has also demanded that the privatization program be expedited and that a timeframe be set for the auction of loss-making state-owned companies.
