Power tariff up by 30%
By Saad Saud

ISLAMABAD—Finance Ministry has approved the summary presented by NEPRA for the increase in power rates and directed to implement it immediately. According to sources, the subsidy given by government for power production and other issue has reached to Rs.175 billion. The government has now decided step-by-step withdrawal of the subsidy.
Earlier, NEPRA had already announced the 31 percent increment in power rates after end of subsidy that was given on power.
Ministry of Finance has approved the increase in rate of electricity up to 31% while Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf has said that government has no choice but to take this action. According to the sources Finance Ministry has approved the summary of electricity rate increase sent by NEPRA. Sources further told that subsidy value reached to Rs 175 billion that government was paying in terms of subsidy for electricity and other affairs and to decrease this subsidy government has no choice but to take this step. Raja Pervez has said that NEPRA has the authority to decide about the electricity rate because it was a regulatory authority. He said that this increase in rate would be applicable up to 50 units and below than 50 units would not pay the increased rate of electricity. In response to a question the Minister has rejected the chance of unannounced load shedding during Ramadan. Later on he said that electricity consumers could contact him directly on his cell phone 0333-5210000 in case of load shedding during Iftar and Sehar timing.
Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) has started working on the preparation of the new tariff following the government approved the rise in power rates. The new tariff will be effective from September 7. The new power tariff envisages increase of 20 to 75 per cent (54 per cent on average) for domestic, industrial and commercial consumers.
According to PEPCO sources, the issue of payments amounting to billions of rupees for purchase of power is becoming a problem. Keeping this in view NEPRA has approved 54 per cent rise on the average in power tariff. PEPCO will forward the new tariff to the federal government in the next couple of days and the Prime Minister will grant approval to its summary.
It is expected that the electricity bills for the month of September will be revised on the basis of new tariff immediately after the presidential elections. The domestic consumers using 50 units of electricity in a month will not come under the new power tariff and they will continue to pay Rs1.40 per unit. The rate for 50 to 100 units of consumption will rise to Rs3.93 per unit from Rs3 while consumers of 300 to 1000 units will pay Rs8.53 per unit compared to Rs6.53 previously.
The Pepco, that wants its Rs 129 billion receivables recovered forthwith to discharge cash liability, has received threats from oil supplier as well as from power generation companies to stop supplies if payments are not made on immediate basis,” the official sources disclosed. The Pepco Managing Director Munawar Baseer, when contacted, confirmed that the issues with PSO and the power generation companies are still unresolved though his department has taken up this issue with the federal government.