President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Shamim Ahmed Firpo has urged the K-Electric to comply with the orders of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) orders avoiding delaying tactics and provide tariff incentive to its customers that will also encourage them to reduce load during peak hours.
He further advised all the K-Electric consumers to demand their rights for Time of Use (ToU) metering/billing facility which, upon installation, would surely provide huge relief to the masses. He also urged the K-Electric to avoid charging peak hour rate all the day and implement the concept of ToU across-the-board which would substantially reduce the electricity bills of industrial, commercial and domestic consumers.
He pointed out that the ToU allows high charges for just 4 hours only whereas the electricity consumption during the remaining 20 hours each day is supposed to be charged at off-peak rate but it was highly unfair on part of the K-Electric to keep charging at peak hours rate throughout the day which not only soars the cost of doing business for industries but also overburdens the common men in the ongoing era of inflation.
He said that the ToU concept bifurcates peak hours in Karachi from 6:00PM to 10:00PM and the remaining 20-hour time is considered as off-peak hours. President of the KCCI further said that NEPRA has been notifying peak and off-peak hour rates since 2006 for industrial customers and 2009 onwards for commercial and residential customers, which were also available at NEPRA's website. According to the NEPRA, peak hours and off-peak hours for residential and commercial consumers were Rs 18.00 and Rs 12.00 per kwh respectively whereas for industrial consumers, the peak and off-peak hours were Rs 18.00 and Rs 12.29 down to Rs 12.00 per kwh depending on the load but it was a matter of grave concern that K-Electric continues to charge peak hours rate all the day from majority of its consumers and provides relief under ToU facility on the basis of demand only, not by right.
He said that K-Electric was of the opinion that this facility could immediately be extended only to those consumers who had digital meters installed in their premises. Hence, it should be one of the top priorities for the utility service provider to install digital meters across-the-board so that the common men, commercial and industrial consumers could avail this facility.
"However, it seems that K-Electric remains hesitant to provide ToU facility with an excuse that the matter is under discussion with NEPRA and will only be implemented once these discussions are finalised," he said adding that on the other hand, it had come to the KCCI's notice that this facility was being provided to the consumers on individual basis only when it was demanded.