NEPRA raises electricity tariff

ISLAMABAD (INP): The National Electric Power Regulation Authority (NEPRA) on Wednesday approved the Federal government’s request to increase the power tariff for Karachi by Rs 0.57.
According to details, NEPRA announced its reserved decision to increase the power tariff by 0.57 on Wednesday. KE and DISCO users will have to pay an additional Rs0.57 in August, September and October, the NEPRA notification said. NEPRA decision read that the increase would be applied to all kind of users of Karachi except Life Line users. DISCO users have already paid the increased tariff, NEPRA added.
The approval for the tariff hike would be given by the Federal government. The government would issued a notification of the approval of the hike. The increase has come at a time when Karachiites are already under severe distress due to unannounced power cuts. On July 29, with the increase in temperature in Karachi, the duration of power cuts in the metropolis reached upto 15 hours as electricity shortfall reached 800MW.
Areas including, North Karachi, Sir Syed Town, Shahnawaz Bhutto Colony, Yousuf Goth, Gadap, Kathor, Landhi, Malir, Shah Faisal Colony, Hijrat Colony, Liaqatabad, Ranchhor Line, PIB Colony, Jamshed Road, Orangi Town, Shah Faisal Colony, Baldia and Ittehad Town and other areas are facing power cuts.
Pakistan’s electricity shortfall reaches 5,944 mw: The electricity shortfall in Pakistan has reached 5,944 megawatts (MW on Wednesday. According to details, the Power Division recorded the total power generation capacity has dropped to 23,556 MW against the demand of 29,500MW.
As of today 7,520 MW was being generated from water, 10,950MW from Independent Power Producers (IPPs), 970MW from government thermal plants, 3,001MW from nuclear plants, 886MW and 141MW from wind and solar plants respectively. 7MW of electricity was being generated from bagasse power plants. They said decreased power generation has also led to an increase in unannounced load-shedding periods. Different parts of Pakistan currently facing loadshedding up to 10 hours. It is pertinent to mention here that the federal government has announced multiple deadlines previously to end loadshedding in the country, however, they have yet to materialize owing to multiple reasons cited by the ministers including higher fuel prices and delay in maintenance of the power plants.