January 4, 2003	Saturday	Shawwal 30, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 3: The power tariff of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) is expected to come down by an average of 15 paisa per unit on Monday (Jan 6).

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) would announce its quarterly review of the KESC tariff under the automatic fuel adjustment mechanism on Monday, a Nepra member told Dawn on Friday.

The member said Nepra had completed its deliberations on the KESC’s tariff and had asked the utility to provide further explanations about its accounts and cash flow position latest by Jan 4.

The official said that reduction in the KESC’s consumer tariff, according to available data, would be more or less equivalent to that of Wapda’s tariff reduction that had been effected last month.

Nepra is required to review tariffs of Wapda and KESC after every three months and pass on the impact of fuel oil price variation to the consumers under a notified ‘automatic fuel adjustment formula.’

Nepra had reduced Wapda tariff between 12 to 19 paisa per unit for various consumers under quarterly automatic fuel adjustment mechanism on Dec 17 as a result of fall in the international oil prices.

Nepra has already approved a seven-year tariff formula for KESC under which inflation and operation and maintenance costs are adjusted in the tariff on a yearly basis to attract private investors to purchase the utility.

The Wapda tariff had been reduced by 12 paisa for residential and agricultural consumers, 19 paisa per unit for commercial consumers and 16 paisa per unit for industrial, bulk, railway and KESC.

The Nepra member said that the tariff reduction for commercial and industrial consumers would be equal to that of Wapda’s so that there was no disparity of cost of production between Karachi and rest of the country.