ISLAMABAD: The government is seeking powers from the parliament to impose surcharges on electricity consumers and to reduce age of members and chairman of the National Electric and Power and Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to replace existing lot with fresh members of its choice.

This is being done through amendments to Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997 – commonly known as Nepra Act – referred to the parliament even though the final draft had not been cleared by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) – a mandatory requirement under the Constitution.

A senior Nepra official explained in a background media briefing that proposed changes to the Nepra Act were not shared with the regulator for any comments or input while it was also not cleared by the CCI. In fact, he said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had written a protest letter to the centre, saying the CCI had not cleared such changes, and should be withdrawn.

The official explained that the move appeared to be part of a larger scheme under which the government had also silently notified the transfer of five regulatory bodies to line ministries on June 6 even though three high courts of the country had suspended or stuck down similar earlier notification of December last year. “Such moves are apparently aimed at curtailing independent role of the regulator through procedural impropriety with mala fide intension despite opposition from various committees of the parliament and Senate chairman Raza Rabbani,” he said.

Law being amended to change Nepra chairman, members

On June 6, the government not only transferred again the five regulators to line ministries but also amended Rules of Business, 1973. Under these amendments, entry 53 from Cabinet Division has been deleted and new entries made under the finance ministry for Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, IT and Telecom Ministry for Pakistan Telecom Authority, Petroleum Ministry for Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority and Power Ministry for Nepra.

Interestingly, as the Nepra official spoke to the media, the Lahore High Court suspended this government order and directed Dr Iram Khan of the Cabinet Division, who signed the order, to appear personally before the court on June 30.

Under the proposed amendment, a new section 31A has been proposed for insertion in the existing Nepra law. It says the federal government may, in addition to the tariff determined by the Authority (Nepra), impose a surcharge on such consumer categories as may be notified in the official gazette, to be collected by a licencee (distribution company).

The bill also envisaged the surcharge would be used for discharging such public service obligations of electricity consumers towards elimination of electricity poverty as may be determined in the (yet to be approved) national electricity plan, including measures which are essential to achieve the goals of economic and social cohesion, environmental protection, energy efficiency, demand management, climate change and the security of energy supply.

Secondly, the government will also get the powers through the parliament to raise funds for such development projects as may be determined in the national electricity plan and which are aimed at improving provision of electric power services to consumers.

Third, it would also get powers to give effect to any tariff rationalisation or subsidy management guidelines as may be issued by the federal government from time to time.

Also, the bill seeks to reduce the qualification criteria, including maximum age of the members and chairman of Nepra from 65 to 62 years. The official said this clause would summarily end tenure of the three existing members and chairman of Nepra in a few months, leaving behind only Saifullah Chattha, member from Punjab, to continue for less than two years.

The fresh induction process would consume some time. The criteria for experience have been reduced from 15 to 10 years for members and from 20 to 15 years for chairman of the authority.

The first attempt for transfer of regulators to line ministry was withdrawn from CCI meeting in December when Sindh and KP opposed. However, a fresh item Amendment to the Nepra Act was taken on the agenda at the last moment without prior notice of the provinces.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2017