Nepra raises tariffs for Iesco, Qesco: consumers to pay more for less power

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) is allowing massive increase in tariffs of power to distribution companies (discos) prior to announcement of country-wide load shedding which will hit the middle income group.
According to the tariff determinations of Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco), uploaded on the website of Nepra, tariff for the domestic consumers who are using 1-100 units per month has been raised from Rs 6.27 per unit to Rs 7.15 per units, whereas the domestic consumer using 101-300 units in a month, will have to pay Rs 10 per unit against existing tariff of Rs 7.20 per unit.
Those consuming 301-700 units in a month will now pay Rs 12 per unit as compared to existing tariff of Rs 10.65 per unit. Those domestic consumers, who use above 700 units in a month, will pay Rs 14 per unit against present tariff of Rs 13.30 per unit.
Time of Use (ToU) during peak hours will be Rs 13 per unit and Rs 6.70 per unit in off-peak hours. However, very slight changes have been made in the tariff for commercial and industrial consumers for sanctioned load less than 5 kW and above 5 kW respectively.
Domestic consumers of Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco), who consume 1-100 units per month would pay Rs 9.50 per unit as opposed to the previous Rs 9 per unit indicating an increase of 50 paisa per unit. Consumers using 101-300 units monthly will now pay Rs 11.90 per unit against the existing tariff of Rs 11 per unit which implies 90 paisa per unit increase.
Tariff for domestic consumers, consuming 301-700 units per month has been increased by 75 paisa per unit from 12.50 per unit to Rs 13.25 per unit. Consumers who may use above 700 units in a month will pay additional Rs 1.25 per unit - or Rs 15.25 instead of the existing tariff of Rs 14 per unit. Tariff for the commercial and industrial consumers of Qesco has also been revised upward.
Vice Chairman of Nepra, in his additional note has stated that after having gone through the feeder losses which Qesco has furnished he strongly feels these losses are abnormally high and are not within acceptable limits by any standards. Such losses result in high cost of electricity which is eventually borne by the consumers.
He recommended that the management of the disco needs to look at this aspect of poor performance seriously and control the losses and improve upon its performance by taking effective technical and administrative measures such as controlling theft of electricity, bifurcation of overloaded and lengthy feeders, replacement of undersize conductors, augmentation of overloaded transformers, introducing automated meter reading, improving distribution and transmission network in general etc.
Last week, Nepra had revised tariffs of Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) and Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), hitting middle category consumers or those who consume up to 400 units a month. The tariff for consumers of Gepco who use from 101-300 units has been raised by 95 paisa per unit whereas those who consume from 301-700 units per month will have to pay Rs 2 per unit more than the existing tariff. At the same time, Nepra has observed that discos are over-billing consumers while refusing to deal with their own inefficiencies.
Those who consume above 700 units per month and paid Rs 13.70 per unit would now pay Rs 14.75 per unit ie Rs 1.05 per unit more. Likewise, tariff for commercial consumers has been revised upward. During peak hours, the rate has increased to Rs 14 per unit from Rs 12.25 whereas for off-peak hours the price will be Rs 7.50 per unit against Rs 6.75 per unit.
For Lesco, consumers who use 1-100 units per month will have to pay 50 paisa per unit, whereas there is no change for consumers using 101-300 units. However, tariff for those consumers who use 301-700 units per month has been reduced by Rs 3.10 per unit and Rs 2.21 per unit for those who consume above 700 units per month. Tariff has been revised for commercial consumers.
Nepra is expected to revise the power tariffs of Fesco, Mepco, Pesco and Hesco next week. After this exercise, the Ministry of Water and Power will increase tariff as per the agreement with the international financial institutions. "We are waiting for tariff determinations of all the discos after which we will decide how much tariff we can increase," said an official of Water and Power Ministry.