ISLAMABAD: Over 50 per cent domestic electricity consumers in the country are provided power at subsidised rates because they are poorest of the poor called ‘lifeline consumers’ and consume less than 50 units (kilowatt hour) per month as they use only two lights and a fan.

This was said in an official testimony before a Senate standing committee by the acting chairman of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), Khwaja Mohammad Naeem, when senators challenged the government’s claim of providing subsidy to consumers.

The committee accused the government and the power companies of misleading people over extension of huge subsidies to consumers and expressed concern over hiccups allegedly being created by the Planning Commission over execution of a project of cheap hydropower in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Mr Naeem, who is a relative of Water and Power Minister Khwaja Mohammad Asif, told the Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power that more than 50 per cent of consumers were poorest of the poor described as lifeline consumers and being provided subsidised electricity.

“This is not understandable why such poverty is not visible”, he said, adding that he did not initially believe that there were so many poor consumers in the country but then a study conducted on his orders proved so.

Senators Zahid Khan and Shahi Syed of ANP, Nisar Mohammad Khan of the PML-N and Humayun Khan Mandokhel questioned the claims that the government was providing subsidy on power tariff and said that if the stance of Nepra and the water and power ministry on subsidy was true than half of the consumers should not get monthly bills of more than Rs175, inclusive of taxes, because lifeline consumers were charged at the rate of Rs2 per unit.