ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has allowed K-Electric to charge its consumers an additional cumulative cost of Rs3.64 per unit in three months (Aug-Oct) to add almost Rs5 billion to its revenue.

On the other hand, it has asked ex-Wapda distribution companies (Discos) to refund about 19 paisa per unit to their consumers through negative adjustment in current month’s bills, with a cumulative impact of about Rs2.6bn.

Both tariff adjustments were notified by the Ogra here on Friday on account of monthly fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for six months in case of K-Electric and one month for Discos.

Based on certified data provided by KE, public hearing and cross examinations, the regulator approved additional FCAs for three months. These include Rs1.25 per unit additional charge for electricity consumed in January, Rs2.1 per unit for February and Rs1.94 per unit for March.

Nepra asks Discos to refund about 19 paisa per unit to consumers this month

Conversely, it approved a reduction of 55 paisa per unit for April, 95 paisa per unit for May and 15 paisa per unit for June.

Given ups and downs in the FCA in three months each, the regulator clubbed reduction for a month with increase in another month to stagger the monthly burden on consumers. As such, the consumers will now be charged an additional FCA of Rs1.1 per unit in August, Rs1.55 per unit in September and Re1 per unit in October. When put together, the notified cumulative tariff increase works out to be about Rs3.64 per unit in three months.

The regulator said positive FCAs, (increase in tariff) would be applicable to all KE consumer categories except lifeline consumers and would be shown separately in the consumers’ bills on the basis of units billed to the them in the respective month to which the adjustment pertains.

Similarly, negative FCAs will be applicable to all consumer categories except lifeline consumers, domestic consumers consuming up to 300 units and agriculture consumers of KE. The negative adjustment on account of monthly FCA is also applicable to the domestic consumers having Time of Use (ToU) meters irrespective of their consumption level.

Further, industrial consumers availing Industrial Support Package (ISP) of the government 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.

DISCOs

In this case, Nepra said that Discos had requested for positive FCA of about 81 paisa per unit for electricity consumed in June, having impact of Rs11.2bn. However, after examinations of data and record, the regulator approved a reduction of 19 paisa per unit, having benefit of Rs.2.6bn for consumers. However, actually, the net benefit reaching the consumers will be about Rs1.3bn as some subsidised categories of consumers are not eligible for negative FCA.

The regulator said the FCA of June will be charged in the billing month of August to all consumer categories of Discos, except life line consumers i.e. having consumption up to 50 units, domestic consumers consuming up to 300 units and agriculture consumers of all Discos. Negative adjustment on account of monthly FCA is also applicable to the domestic consumers having Time of Use meters irrespective of their consumption level.

Further, industrial consumers availing ISP 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. This FCA will remain applicable only for one month and is not applicable to KE consumers.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2021