Karachiites set to face another hike in power tariff

ISLAMABAD  -  Karachiites will face another hike in tariff as K-Electric has sought Nation­al Electric Power Regulatory Author­ity (Nepra) approval to charge an ad­ditional Re0.51 per unit from power consumers on account of fuel charges adjustments for the month of August.

In a petition submitted with NEPRA, KE has requested that it has charged the consumers less in August as com­pared to the actual power generation cost, especially in view of imported gas and oil in August 2024. The in­crease in tariff is owing to the high generation of the K-Electric power plants during the month, as on the other hand the power tariff is likely to go down for the consumers of the state-owned distribution companies (Discos) on account of August FCA. The Central Power Purchasing Agency had informed NEPRA that Discos will refund Re0.5755/unit to power con­sumers on account of fuel charges ad­justment for August 2024.

Notably, in the month of July also, KE had sought NEPRA permission for recovering Rs3.09 per unit from the consumers on account of monthly FCA, while on the other hand the pow­er tariff was reduced by Rs 0.37 per unit for the consumers of Discos on account of July FCA.

In a petition filed with Nepra, K-Electric sought permission to recover Rs853 million under the FCA mecha­nism, based on the interim reference tariff set in March 2023. The KE claims it charged the customers less for fuel costs in August, and now needs to re­coup those funds.

Nepra has scheduled a public hear­ing on the matter on October 3. If approved, consumers will see the in­crease reflected in their December or January bills. The additional charge, combined with an 18pc GST, would result in a total impact of Rs1.0 billion for K-Electric customers.

It should be recalled that NEPRA earlier granted the K-Electric collec­tion of additional Rs2.5934 per unit in October and Rs3.1688 per unit in No­vember bills. These increases are on account of May and June 2024 FCAs. The total impact of these adjustments amounts to Rs5.763 per unit, impos­ing an additional burden of nearly Rs10.6 billion on consumers.