July 25, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 24, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 24: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has determined an across-the-board tariff increase of 3 paisa per unit for Wapda consumers and 14 paisa per unit for the KESC.

A Nepra member told this correspondent on Thursday that consumers of both utilities using up to 50 units a month had been exempted from the proposed increase. He said tariff determination for Wapda was sent to the government for notification two days ago while that of the KESC was dispatched on Thursday.

Under the Nepra Act 1997, the government is required to issue a notification within 15 days of Nepra’s determination. The increase will take place from the date of the issuance of the notification.

A water and power ministry official confirmed that tariff determinations had been forwarded to the prime minister’s secretariat for approval so that a formal notification could be issued.

Another Nepra member explained that increase in Wapda tariff was lower than the that of the KESC because Wapda’s power generation from hydel sources had been higher than expected due to sufficient water availability during the March-June quarter. Also, there was an additional supply of gas for power generation during the period.

On the other hand, the KESC was mostly dependent on furnace oil for power generation and its gas supply quota was very low.

In the last quarterly review, the government had notified only half of the increase approved by Nepra and provided a subsidy of more than Rs500 million to Wapda to minimize burden on consumers.

Now the government has given an undertaking to the IMF that the impact of fuel adjustment would be passed on to the consumers. It has also committed not to reduce tariff even if required under the fuel adjustment mechanism till such time as the losses of the two utilities are met.

The IMF had given a one-time waiver to the government for not fulfilling the conditionalities relating to Wapda and the KESC losses under its $1.47 billion Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility.

However, the IMF was given an undertaking that Wapda tariff would be increased by 6.6 per cent during 2003-04 over and above the fuel adjustment-related increases.