ECC okays surcharge on electricity consumers to recover Rs76b

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet has decided to recover Rs76 billion of markup charges of PHL loans from electricity consumers via the imposition of surcharge, ARY News reported on Friday.

The ECC session chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar approved the imposition of an additional surcharge of Rs1 per unit for FY 2023-24 to recover additional markup charges of PHL loans not covered through the already applicable FC surcharge.

The surcharge will also be applicable to K-Electric customers.

During today’s session, the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) presented a summary of the refinancing of Power Holding Limited’s debt and a surcharge to recover markup payments.

The ECC approved the proposal to recover Rs76 billion while exempting non-ToU domestic consumers having consumption equal to 300 units and private agriculture consumers in four months period from March 2023 to June 2023 to recover the markup charges of PHL loans.

It allowed imposing the additional surcharge of Rs1/unit for FY 2023-24 to recover additional markup charges of PHL loans not covered through the already applicable FC surcharge. The above surcharges will be applicable to K-Electric consumers to maintain uniform tariffs across the country.

The committee deferred PHL’s principal instalments payable in respect of Rs283.287 billion for a period of two years from the date of execution of fresh facilities and directed the Finance division to issue a Government Guarantee for repayment of principal as well as interest/fees, etc for the fresh facilities of Rs283.287 billion.

The ECC considered and approved the proposals contained in another summary of the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) regarding the recovery of staggered Fuel Charges Adjustment applicable for the months of August and September 2022.

Other decisions

The ECC deferred the electricity bills for the month of September 2022 for commercial consumers in the flood-affected areas till the next billing cycle and waived off electricity bills for the months of August and September 2022 for the non- ToU domestic consumers having = 300 units consumption.

The ECC also approved the additional supplementary grant of Rs. 10.34 billion to cover the waiver of electricity bills in flood-affected areas, the state news agency reported.

The committee considered another summary of the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) and approved the Revised Circular Debt Management Plan.