ISLAMABAD, July 18: The electricity tariff is likely to increase next week by 10 paisa and 15 paisa per unit for Wapda and KESC consumers, respectively, under the automatic fuel adjustment mechanism, Dawn has learnt.

A senior official of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) told Dawn on Friday that both the utilities had sought a 15-paisa per unit raise in their consumer tariff under a quarterly fuel adjustment due in June/July.

He said the expected tariff increase for the KESC, under the initial estimates, would be around 15 paisa per unit. However, the tariff hike for Wapda consumers would be around 10 paisa. There would be no change in tariff for consumers using up to 50 units per month as usual.

A Nepra member explained that the increase in Wapda tariff would be on the lower side because power generation from hydel sources has been higher than expected due to sufficient water availability during the March-June 2003 quarter. Also, there was an additional supply of natural gas for power generation during the period.

“The two factors together do not allow us to increase as much tariff for Wapda as for the KESC which is mostly dependent on furnace oil for power generation,” said the Nepra member.

Responding to a question, the official did not agree that furnace oil prices remained low during the period between March-July, and said the prices were depressed for a very short period and then “Nepra has to calculate full-year impact on the power tariff.”

He said Nepra had not fully passed on the impact of fuel prices to consumers in its last quarterly review in March because, under the law, only three per cent variation could be allowed to the utilities under the automatic fuel adjustment formula.

He said Nepra had committed in its determination that the remaining portion of the required increase would be passed on to consumers in the next tariff review.