ISLAMABAD: The government has approved a massive Rs7.91per unit gradual hike in the base power price and asked the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to take further steps in this regard.
According to sources, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday granted his approval on a summary of The Energy Ministry in this regard.
They said that the first hike of Rs3.50/unit in the base electricity tariff will be passed onto consumers in July while the second one will be done in August and the third in September.
Sources said NEPRA is likely to take a decision on whether to conduct a public hearing on the matter or take a direct decision without conducting a hearing by Wednesday.
Earlier, NEPRA, after conducting a hearing, had forwarded its decision to the energy ministry and asked the government to issue notification in this regard. The authority has reportedly said that the increase of Rs7.9078 per unit was mainly due to an increase in fuel prices, capacity cost, and impact of rupee devaluation.
The tariff hike was determined for the financial year (FY) 2022-23, which on the national average came out to be Rs24.82 per kilowatt hour (kWh), higher by Rs7.9078 per kWh than the earlier determined national average tariff of Rs16.91 per kWh, said NEPRA.
As per NEPRA, power distribution companies (DISCOs) including Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO), Gujranwala Electric Power Company (GEPCO), Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO), Sukkur Electric Power Company (SEPCO), Quetta Electric Supply Company (QESCO), Peshawar Electric Power Company (PESCO) & Tribal Electric Supply Company (TESCO) filed multi-year tariff petitions for the FY 2020-21 to FY 2024-25 while Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO), Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) & Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) filed annual adjustment/indexation request under the already allowed multi-year tariff.
Energy Purchase Price was projected as Rs1,152 billion, while capacity charges including NTDC and HVDC cost was projected as Rs1,366 billion and total revenue requirement of DISCOs including DISCOs margin and Prior Year Adjustment (PYA) was projected as Rs2,805 billion with projected sales of 113,001 GWh.
Profit also learnt that MEPCO, GEPCO, HESCO, SEPCO, QESCO, PESCO & TESCO were earlier allowed an investment of around Rs406 billion for their distribution investment program for a five years period while DISCOs allowed T&D losses were reduced from 13.46% to 11.70% for FY23.
