Nepra approves Rs3.23/unit power price hike for July

By Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: The government is all set to impose a surcharge of Rs3.23 per unit on electricity consumers from the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, a regulator’s statement said on Friday.

“… has decided to allow application of enhanced surcharges through an instant decision to be recovered from different categories of consumers of both XWDISCOs and K-Electric, from the FY2023-24 and onward w.e.f. July 1, 2023,” the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) notified. “The fresh surcharge shall be shown as a separate head in the consumers’ bills.”

There would be a 43-paisa additional cost per unit to protected consumers, using up to 200 units and agricultural tube wells.

This surcharge would increase to Rs3.23 per unit for all other consumers throughout the next year. The average national surcharge would work out at Rs2.63 per unit after considering the consumers with less than 200 units and agricultural tube wells.

The regulator said the independent power producers (IPPs) would call Pakistan’s sovereign guarantees without this surcharge.

“As per the MoE (Ministry of Energy), the already allowed surcharges are not sufficient to meet the electric services obligations of the Government, as non-payment to power producers may result in loss of generation capacity and since the payments to the power producers have been secured by sovereign guarantee, issued by the government of Pakistan, the power producers shall start calling upon the sovereign guarantees along-with the imposition of late payment surcharge.”

Nepra said the MoE further mentioned that the National Electricity Policy, 2021, approved by the Council of Common Interest under Clause 5.6.1 provides that “financial sustainability of the sector is premised on the recovery of the full cost of service, to the extent feasible, through an efficient tariff structure, which ensures sufficient liquidity in the sector”.

Nepra said the power division claimed that presently the financial obligations of the government stood at around Rs2.6 trillion, which includes over Rs1.7 trillion payables to IPPs and Rs765 billion of Power Holding Limited loans.

Through the decision, the total surcharge would be around Rs335 billion.