ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to increase KE tariff by Rs 1.55 per unit for fourth quarter (April-June) 2021-22 under quarterly tariff adjustments to maintain uniform tariff across the country, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.
Under Section 31(7) of the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has determined periodic adjustment of Discos in tariff for fourth quarter of FY 2021-22. In the light of determination, Nepra has recommended a uniform rate for the fourth quarterly adjustment of FY 2021-22 for consumers of Discos.
In accordance with section 5.6.3 of National Electric Policy, 2021 “the government may maintain a uniform consumer-end tariff for K-Electric and state-owned Discos (even after privatisation) through incorporation of direct/indirect subsidies.” Accordingly, KE applicable uniform variable charge is required to be modified to maintain the uniform tariff across the country with a recovery period of four months.
The adjustment shall be applicable on the consumption of October -22 to January-23 to be recovered from consumers in December 2022 to March-23, respectively.
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KE’s Chief Regulator Affairs and Government Relations, Imran Qureshi, in his comments on the summary of Power Division has stated that the power utility company has no objection on applicability of Rs 1.55 per unit QTA as it is in line with the uniform tariff policy.
K-Electric has further submitted that notification of quarterly tariff adjustments for second and third quarters of FY 2022 applied in case of Discos (adjustment of Rs 1.5547 per unit and Rs 0.5087 per unit respectively) is also pending, and requested that in case these adjustments are also to be applied to KE consumers keeping in mind the GoP’s uniform tariff policy, the process for their notification by Power Division be completed at the earliest.
The government intends to recover Rs 94 billion from the consumers across the country pertaining to fourth quarter of 2021-22, to be recovered from the consumers in a period of four months starting from October 1, 2022.
However, no quarterly adjustments would be passed on B1, B2, B3, and B4 industrial consumers to the extent of incremental sales till continuation of the package, in line with the Authority’s decision of December 1, 2020.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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