ISLAMABAD, April 15: All the 12 corporate companies of Wapda would submit to National Electric Power Regulatory Authority their separate bulk power tariff petitions before June 30.

To meet this target, the government on Tuesday decided to seek public opinion on the question as to how separate power tariffs could be implemented in various parts of the country as the existing uniform tariff would not be sustainable once the tariffs were separated by Nepra.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting here on Tuesday that was convened to review progress of the $1 billion donor funded power sector reforms and restructuring of Wapda.

Sources said that if separate tariffs were introduced for all the distribution companies, power rates of some companies like those feeding Quetta, Hyderabad and Peshawar could reach unbearable limits of Rs10 per unit while profitable and efficient companies like Islamabad, Faisalabad and Lahore could even drop below their current levels.

This could be socially unsustainable because poor people in far-flung areas of Balochistan would be forced to live without power and that could spark a law and order problem, said a Wapda official.

To address that problem, the initial idea was to charge a fixed surcharge from consumers of healthy distribution companies, establish a Fund of universal obligation to provide electricity to all and subsidize power tariff in poor areas, he said.

But the issue is too big to be sorted out at the government level alone without involving the general public, said the official.

The meeting was told that the distribution companies shall submit bulk supply tariff petitions to Nepra by June 30 while NTDC and WAPDA Hydel shall do so by May 1.

Minister for Water and Power Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao directed Wapda and Pepco to hold national level seminars, conferences and discussion to have a broad-based view on determining the future power tariffs for the country.

The big consumers would have a right to buy electricity from any of the distribution companies while distribution companies would be free to purchase power from any of the generation companies. NTDC would charge a special tariff for this trade.

“Caught between the compulsions of implementing the cost of service based tariffs and the sheer lack of appetite on the part of general public for any further tariff increase, the minister directed for a dialogue between the stakeholders, think-tanks and the general public to arrive at a middle course which is feasible, and sustainable in the context of our socio-economic realities,” the minister was quoted by an official handout as saying.