ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Friday allowed K-Electric to charge an additional fuel cost adjustment (FCA) of average 26 paisa and 10 paisa per unit in June and July, respectively from its consumers to add about Rs500 million to its revenue.

The regulator has worked out the increase in rates on the basis of seven months (June to December 2020) of FCA and adjusting monthly increases and reductions in a manner that minimize the price shock to consumers.

The regulator had held the public hearing for the FCA for seven months Feb 23 and issued its decision on Friday. The FCA for four months was higher than power tariff charged to consumers while it was lower than the reference tariff for two months.

Nepra reduced FCA by 75 paisa per unit for June, three paisa per unit for October and Rs1.1 per unit for November. On the other hand, increased FCA for July by 73 paisa per unit, 31 paisa per unit for August, 71 paisa per unit September and 50 paisa per unit for December 2020.

However, it clubbed the FCAs of June, July, August and November (two increases and two reductions) with a net increase of about 26 paisa per unit to be charged to majority of consumers in the billing month of June 2021. Likewise, the regulator also put together the FCAs for September, November and December (two increases and one reduction) with a net additional charge of 10 paisa per unit would be billed to consumers in July 2021.

The higher FCAs would be applicable to all the consumer categories except lifeline consumers and would be shown separately in the consumers’ bills on the basis of units billed to the consumers in the respective month to which the adjustment pertains.

The lower FCAs would also be applicable to all the consumer categories except lifeline consumers, domestic consumers consuming up to 300 units and Agriculture Consumers of K-Electric.

Nepra clarified that negative adjustment on account of monthly FCA was also applicable to the domestic consumers having Time-of-Use (ToU) meters irrespective of their consumption level.

Also, industrial consumers (B1, B2, B3, B4 and B5) industrial consumers availing industrial support package will not get the benefit of negative FCA on incremental sales only. They will however, get the benefit of negative FCA on base tariff billed units.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2021