KARACHI - The politicians and grower leaders of Sindh on Wednesday rejected the hike in power tariff announced by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) by Rs 1.07 per unit. They demanded of the government not to accept the recommendation of NEPRA and notification must be reverted back as the whole country was already plunged into darkness for over 15 hours loadshedding by Wapdas electricity distribution companies. In this regard, Secretary General of Sindh Abadgar Board, Syed Ali Nawaz Shah while talking to TheNation said that the proposed increase in tariff by WAPDA is unacceptable because it is not justified. He pointed out that the increasing circular debt and the gap between generation cost and distribution cost is largely because of the theft and inefficiency in the WAPDA itself for which consumers should not be penalised. He added that the so-called subsidy by the Government is not the actual subsidy but it is on account of in T&D losses and alleged corruption in WAPDA. Meanwhile, it has been reported by the media that power tariffs have been raised by NEPRA by Rs 1.07 per unit for power distributing companies and the approval for this recent hike has been given under monthly fuel adjustment. The NEPRA attributed the hike in power tariff owing to increase in power generation cost as a result of boost in furnace oil prices. Sindh growers body leader remarked that as the price of electricity is increased with that the corruption and electricity theft also increases. Therefore, the solution for the power sector in Pakistan is to increase electricity generation from existing capacity and reduce transmission and distribution losses, which will help WAPDA and the economy of Pakistan, he said and maintained that Sindhs agriculture destroyed due to hours-long loadshedding as tube wells depends on the Hescos power supply. PML-F MPA Ms Nusrat Sehar Abbasi termed the proposed hike in the power tariff as anti-public. She lamented that Sindh already suffering unscheduled loadshedding as electricity remained off for many days in some parts of the province, but Hesco sending excessive bills. Meanwhile, industrialist and former vice president FPCCI Engineer Jabbar while talking to The Nation said that hike in power tariff was not justified in a situation when outages are for most of the time of day, adversely affecting the common man, industrial activities, agriculture and service sector in the province. He was of the view that the HESCO is considered to be most inefficient power distribution company with 1/3rd losses in the supply of power.