KARACHI - The management of Karachi Electricity Supply Company (KESC) will get additional revenue up to Rs3 billion from February to June of this fiscal year in case the company incorporated hike in the tariff allowed by the NEPRA from February 1, 2009. The NEPRA has allowed the KESC to increase the tariff by Rs1.86 per unit which led the total increment up to 20 per cent. This new tariff would be implemented, once the government will allow the KESC, from February 1, 2009, sources told The Nation on Sunday. This hike in tariff is for the second time during last 8 months. The total revenue collected by the company per month stands around Rs3 billion. This amount is estimated after excluding the losses faced by the company. "There is no such possibility as far as this new tariff adjustment is concerned. The government is going through a tough phase. There is huge protest against the previous tariff hike. "We are still looking for the payments of previous bills. In this situation it would be not possible to forward any further increment. The company has demanded for increment in the context of increasing oil prices in the past. Now, this demand would be baseless," said a source from the KESC. "The company is going through tough financial time and even these increments are of no use for the company. The revenue generation has declined despite previous increment as many people, mostly the commercial users, stopped paying their bills. If the general public had rejected the first tariff increment, how will they accept the second one?" asked the source. In past, the KESC estimated revenue generation was about Rs2 billion after the 30 per cent increment during September 2008. The NEPRA had allowed the KESC to increase the tariff rates up to 30 per cent. But at that time, according to the privatisation agreement, it was stated that the company would not increase the tariff till 7 years from its privatisation. The new management delayed it's took over till the government and NEPRA allowed the company to hike up the tariff rates, he said. It is pertinent to mention here that the KESC has the annual income of around Rs36 billion. At that time the 30 per cent increment hiked up the revenue and provided the company with additional Rs10.8 billion annually. Both these increments have, September 2008 and anticipated 20 per cent increment in February 2009, made the amount of revenue distinguishing. This opens a new task for the management that how much they will be spending on the generation of electricity. It is ironic that despite a lot of assurances in the past from the government and the company, the situation is not overwhelming. The situation of electricity is same as before. Even in winter, loadshedding persists in the metropolitan. This attributed to the maintenance work at the power stations. Interestingly if huge amount is to collected by the company than how much it will spend on the improvement of the system of electricity distribution and generation in the metropolitan. Now, the citizens of this mega city wait for any miracle that could provide them with this basic utility.