Recently, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) has stopped the government from receiving Fuel Price Adjustment (FPA) from electricity consumers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and merged Districts of Erstwhile FATA.
According to the details, a divisional bench of PHC ordered the Federal Government, Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Peshawar Electricity Supply Company ((PESCO) and National Electricity and Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to submit comments regarding the case.
As said, a citizen filed a writ petition that WAPDA generates hydel electricity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which fulfils provincial needs beside providing surplus production to federation therefore charging KP citizens with Fuel Price Adjustment (FPA) levy is illegal. The petitioner urged that the government should place this liability on petroleum based power’s consumers.
The coalition government has charged the electricity consumers with FPA, which constitutes about 80% value of their monthly bill and immensely contributed to the current blazing price hike in the country. This massive increase in electricity bill badly affected the masses and every segment of the society protest it.
There are grave concerns in the masses about the colossal amount that is being charged to the public in the name of fuel price adjustment. Recently, the President of All Pakistan Trade Union accused the government of replenishing it’s line losses, electricity theft and amount of the free of cost electricity of WAPDA employees from traders and common citizens in the garb of FPA.
In fact, the successive governments had adopted highly discriminatory and objectionable policies that multiple taxes and TV fees had been added to the electricity bill on all consumers without any segregation, similarly, the government slapped FPA on the entire population whether they use hydel, solar or thermal power. Now, the court has sought an explanation from all stakeholders to ascertain the efficacy of the government’s decision.
According to experts, all government departments have their legal experts besides a dedicated law ministry to ascertain the legal status of any policy and decision of the government yet every other policy of the rulers faces criticism from the judges. Although the court will resolve this issue soon yet leaders must not fell prey to the unethical suggestions of their aides.
