ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority has approved up to 124 per cent increase in the electricity tariff of four distribution companies of Wapda for the first quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal year.
Nepra has also done away with the lower-slab tariff subsidy for domestic consumers using more than 300 units per month. The subsidy will now be allowed for only one slab.
The authority revised upwards the tariff schedule of Quetta, Islamabad, Gujranwala and Lahore electric supply companies.
It is in the process of finalising power rates for Multan, Faisalabad, Peshawar and Hyderabad electric supply companies.
The tariff for lifeline consumers using up to 50 units will also go up by a uniform 9 per cent for all distribution companies, to be charged at Rs2 per unit instead of the existing Rs1.83 per unit.
While increasing the tariff, the power regulator noted with concern that system losses have dropped by only less than 0.05 per cent over the last two years, despite having investments and repeated targets for loss reduction set by it.
The consumers, who had lodged complaints about 20 per cent faster metres imported from China, have been told by Nepra that the government has banned import of the metres, but local industry has not been able to roll out adequate number of metres.
Although Nepra has conceded that the distribution companies have failed to meet targets for installing time-of-day-use (TOU) metres and continued to use their discretion in application of usage of time and rates, it has extended the deadline till June 2011 for a complete replacement of manual reading-based metres with TOU metres.
Quesco According to tariff determination for the Quetta Electric Supply Company (Quesco) sent to the federal government for issuing a notification, the rates for first domestic slab of 1-100 units per month has been increased by 124 per cent from Rs4.22 to Rs9.50 per unit.
The tariff for the slab of 101-300 units has been increased by 84 per cent from Rs5.43 to Rs11.90 per unit. The rate for the 201-700 unit slab has been jacked up by 27 per cent to Rs13.25 per unit, while consumption above 700 units would cost 17 per cent more at Rs15.25 per unit.
The industrial tariff for up to 25kw supply has been increased by 12 per cent and between 25kw and 500kw by 21 per cent.
The peak tariffs for these categories have been raised by 38 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively, while off-peak rates by 15.4 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively.
The tariff for SCARP tube-wells has been increased by 45 per cent and for all other agricultural tube-wells by 104 per cent.
Iesco The tariff for 1-100 units used per month by domestic consumers of the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) has been increased by 47 per cent to Rs6.27 per unit and for 101-300 units by 11.3 per cent.
The tariff for above 300 units will go up by 2 per cent per unit, but the consumers will lose the benefit of lower rates of up to first 300 units.
The tariffs for commercial, industrial and agricultural consumers have been increased by 2-3 per cent.
Gepco The domestic consumers of the Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) using up to 100 units per month will now be charged 93 per cent higher rates of Rs8.25 per unit, the current rate being Rs4.28.
The rates for 101-300 units per month have been increased by 55 per cent to Rs10 per unit and those for 300-700 units will go up by 10 per cent and for above 700 units by 5 per cent.
The commercial consumers with a sanctioned load of 5kw will now pay 12.3 per cent more at Rs14.35 per unit, while the rates for above 5kw load would go up by 44 per cent to Rs11.50.
The industrial and agricultural rates have been increased within a range of 2-4 per cent.
Lesco The tariff for domestic consumers of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) using less than 100 units will go up by 60 per cent to Rs6.85 per unit from Rs2.57.
The rates for 101-300 units have been raised by 28 per cent to Rs8.30 per unit while higher consumption will cost 2 per cent more.
The tariffs for industrial, commercial, agricultural and bulk purchasers have been increased by about 2 per cent.
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