Rs1.95 a unit hike in electricity tariff gets NEPRA’s nod

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Friday approved an increase of Rs1.95 per unit in power tariff, putting an additional burden of Rs200 billion on consumers.
According to the power regulator, the tariff hike will be applicable to all consumers including lifeline consumers using 50 units in a month.
The approval came on a request of the federal government for application of uniform schedule of tariff for all distribution companies of ex-Wapda along with “targeted tariff differential subsidy of Rs185 billion” to ensure uniform tariff. Per unit average tariff has gone up to Rs16.13 following the increase.
Nepra said K-Electric consumers are exempted from the tariff increase. The new power rates will be applicable after issuance of a notification by the federal government in this regard.
Earlier, the Nepra on Thursday allowed another 83-paisa per unit (kWh) increase in electricity rates of Distribution Companies (Discos) of ex-Wapda under quarterly tariff adjustment (QTA) mechanism to generate over Rs84 billion to the bleeding power sector.
This comes a day after the power regulator notified about Rs1.54 per unit increase in power rates for these Discos under monthly fuel cost adjustment (FCA) to generate about Rs11.6bn additional revenue.
On top of the above two decisions, the regulator on Friday issued its determination on the request of the federal government to jack up base electricity tariff by Rs1.95 per unit for the same Discos to charge yet another Rs200bn to consumers. The government has already announced the said increase, but would be notified once cleared by Nepra.
All put together, the total tariff increase, therefore, works to be about Rs4.32 per unit (about Rs296 billion). The average tariff for Discos, however, comes out to be Rs16.13 per unit instead of Rs13.35 at present given the fact that FCAs are applicable in tariff on monthly basis and replaced by FCA of next month. – TLTP