ISLAMABAD (INP): Former president FPCCI and Chairman Businessmen Panel (BMP), Mian Anjum Nisar criticizing the decision of government to make another raise in electricity tariff has urged the NEPRA to reverse the decision of hike in power charges, as it has increased tariff of power Distribution Companies by Rs4.56 per unit as part of the December fuel adjustment to recover Rs76 billion from trade and industry.
In a statement issued here on Sunday, he said that this change in tariff will cause an additional burden of Rs40 billion on consumers. He said that it was unfortunate that during last two months, electricity prices have gone up by Rs8.69 due to fuel price adjustment. In November alone, the electricity tariff was raised by Rs4.13. In just two months, the power tariff raise has put an additional burden of Rs76 billion on consumers.
Mian Anjum Nisar said that the requests from these firms have come amid a prevailing inflation rate of 30 percent, suggesting that official estimates of declining inflationary trends might be less forthcoming because electricity and gas rates have a major contribution to the price baskets.
Besides, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has kept its policy rate unchanged at a record 22pc, citing frequent energy price hikes that keep inflation at elevated levels.
In their separate tariff petitions, the Discos have sought to rise about Rs81.5bn from their consumers in three coming months under the quarterly tariff adjustment for the October-December 2023 period.
This was also on top of about a Rs6.5 per unit monthly fuel cost increase for the billing month of February that currently awaits a decision by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra).
The regulator has accepted the respective tariff petitions and has called public hearings on Feb 14 to see if the proposed increase in tariff was justified in line with the quarterly tariff adjustment mechanism. The quarterly adjustments for Discos now also apply to K-Electric consumers as well under recent government and regulator decisions.
The Discos have sought the increase to finance the additional financial impact of capacity charges arising out of currency devaluation and the interest rate hike besides the market operator fee, the impact of transmission and distribution losses on fuel cost adjustments, the cost of incremental consumption and variable operation and maintenance charges for the second quarter of the current fiscal year.
