Islamabad - The government Friday increased electricity rates by 26 paisa per unit on account of variation in the power purchase price for the first quarter of 2019-2020.
The Power Division has issued a notification and it will have an impact of Rs14.780 billion on the power consumers. The tariff increase for ex-Wapda Discos has been notified on account of periodic adjustments for 1st quarter of FY 2019-20 as determined and recommended by National Electricity Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra).
Last month Nepra had also notified an increase of 14.56 paisa in the power tariff for the power consumers of ex-Wapda Discos on account of power purchase price (PPP) adjustment for the first quarter of current fiscal.
“The Authority has determined a uniform rate of Rs0.1456/kWh for the allowed amount of quarterly adjustment of Rs14780 million pertaining to 1st quarter of 2019- 20, across each category of consumers of Ex-Wapda Discos, to be recovered in twelve (12) months period, based on projected sales for the Fiscal 2017-18, after excluding life line consumers,” said a notification issued here by Nepra.
The ECC has approved the Nepra’s proposed quarterly adjustment of 15 paisa per unit after incorporating an additional charge of 11 paisa per unit for maintaining uniform tariff on all categories of consumers except lifeline and domestic consumers.
The increase coming into effect on December 1, 2019 for the next twelve-monthly billing cycle would not be applicable to nearly 20 million using up to 300 units per month, out of the total 30 million consumers while 600,000 of the remaining one million consumers would only pay 7 paisa per unit as a result of this increase.
The ex-Wapda Discos had filed their request for adjustments on account of variation in the power purchase price for the first quarter (July-September 2019) and requested to increase electricity tariff by 17 paisa per unit to generate Rs17.2 billion additional revenue for Discos.
However, Nepra has allowed an increase of 14.57 paisa per unit instead of 17 paisa which would burden the power consumers of Rs14.780 billion. Nepra increase was applicable to the consumers of all Discos except K-Electric and the life line consumers using up to 50 unit electricity.
However, the government has exempted the consumers using up to 300 units per month from this increase and transferred the burden of these consumers to the consumers using more than 300 units.
The decision of exempting the consumers with 300 units from the hike has further burdened the remaining consumers by another 11 paisa per unit and overall the price per unit was increased by 26 paisa for them. However the changes will not affect the overall collection from the consumers and it will remain the same as notified by Nepra.