Electricity tariff raised by Rs3.33 per unit

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Friday notified an additional fuel cost adjustment (FCA) of Rs3.33 per unit for electricity consumed in May, ARY News reported.

According to an order issued by the regulator, Nepra “reviewed and assessed a National Average Uniform increase of Rs3.3287/kWh in the applicable tariff for XWDISCOs on account of variations in the fuel charges for the month of May 2024”.

The “adjustment of Rs3.3287/kWh shall be applicable to all consumer categories except electric vehicle charging stations (EVCs) and lifeline consumers. The said adjustment shall be shown separately in the consumers’ bills” based on units billed in May 2024, and it will reflect in the billing month of July 2024, Nepra’s notification stated.

Meanwhile, the regulatory authority also notified a tariff reduction of Rs1.67 per unit for K-Electric consumers on account of fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for April 2024.

“The authority after discussing and incorporating adjustments decided to allow the negative FCA for the month of April 2024, to be passed on to consumers in their monthly bills of July 2024”, a separate notification stated.

The “negative adjustment shall be applicable to all the consumer categories except lifeline consumers, domestic consumers consuming up-to 300 units, EV Charging Stations and Agriculture Consumers of K-Electric”.

It added that negative monthly FCA is also applicable to the domestic consumers having Time of Use (ToU) meters irrespective of their consumption level.

“The adjustment shall be shown separately in the consumers’ bills on the basis of units billed to the consumers in the month of April 2024”, it concluded.

A day earlier, the federal cabinet has approved an increase of Rs5.72 per unit in the basic electricity tariff through circulation.

NEPRA made this decision for the fiscal year 2024-2025, with the implementation set to begin on July 1, 2024. The average basic electricity tariff was approved to be raised from Rs 29.78 to Rs 35.50 per unit.

Pakistan’s power sector caused a Rs403 billion loss in FY2022-23, revealed the National Electronic Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) report.

The progress report of the power distribution companies including K-Electric was released by the NEPRA, indicating nine distribution companies including K-Electric failed to achieve 100pc recovery.

The line losses and low recoveries caused a loss of Rs403 bln to the national kitty, the report said. The report highlighted that the companies did not buy the electricity as per the assigned quota.