ISLAMABAD, July 4: National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) here on Monday held public hearings on the tariff petitions filed by Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) and Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco). Nepra Chairman Lt-Gen (retired) Saeed-uz-Zafar, Vice Chairman Fazlullah Qureshi and Member Nasiruddin Ahmad heard the cases.

In its petition, the Pesco has requested 31% increase in its consumer-end tariff, raising its average sale rate from 4.03/KWh to Rs5.26/KWh for the year 2005-06. The transmission and distribution losses are projected as 35.5%.

The Pesco chief executive, Brig Tahir Saeed Malik, elaborated the salient features of the petition.

The Iesco chief executive, Brig Shahbaz, also presented a case for enhancing the revenue by 26%. The Iesco projected its revenue on the basis of T&D losses of 14.4%.

Representative of all Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) acting as an intervener opposed the tariff increase requested by the petitioner and requested the authority to keep the interest of consumers, especially industrial consumers in mind, while deciding on the petition.

Aptma’s representative while opposing multi-year tariff said that allowing a three-year tariff to the Distribution Companies (Discos) would be unfair as it will allow them to pass on their actual losses during control period to the consumers.— APP