By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: The government planned to exempt at least 17 million consumers from paying fuel adjustment charges (FPA) in their monthly electricity bills to provide relief from sky-high energy bills, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday.
“After consulting with the International Monetary Fund, PML-N president Nawaz Sharif and other coalition leaders, it was decided that 17.1 million electricity consumers would not have to pay the FPA,” PM Sharif said in a video address from Qatar.
There are around 30 million electricity consumers in Pakistan. The FPA is linked with the fluctuation in the prices of fuel in the international market.
PM Sharif said FPA has considerably increased electricity bills for July and August, because of high international oil prices, which was “intolerable for the common man”.
“The government is also reviewing the situation for the rest of the 13 million better-off power consumers and a strategy to provide relief to them will also be evolved.”
Power Minister Khurram Dastgir would announce a detailed mechanism for the planned relief. Households and small farmers, consuming less electricity, will benefit from this measure.
The Prime Minister said the FPA exemption would also apply on 300,000 tubewell users in the country. “I hope from these measures there will be contentment among the people and they would realise that the government is trying to improve their situation.”
Protest demonstrations against FPA and other taxes on the electricity bills that shocked most of the consumers erupted many cities in the country this month. The protesters burnt the electricity bills and pledged not to deposit the payments until immediate withdrawal of the FPA and other taxes.
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