ISLAMABAD: Under the instructions of the Power Division, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has called a public hearing on Dec 20 to rubber stamp the application of Rs1.72 per unit additional cost to consumers of K-Electric on account of two quarterly tariff adjustments (QTAs) for last fiscal year i.e. second and third quarter of FY23.

The Power Division had asked Nepra to apply QTAs of Rs0.4689 per unit and Rs1.2489 per unit for the second and third quarter of FY23, respectively, to maintain a uniform tariff across the country as these charges had already been applied to the consumers of other distribution companies (Discos) of ex-Wapda.

The regulator already held public hearings on the subject twice and agreed to the application of these charges but had withheld formal notification because of lapses in the language of the decisions taken by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet and ratified by the cabinet.

Regulator convenes public hearing on Dec 20 to fulfil legal formality

Nepra had pointed out that the cabinet had approved uniform application of QTAs to KE along with other Discos for the future but two previous quarters — October 1 to March 31 — were not covered emphatically.

Now in a fresh communication of Dec 6, the Power Division has told Nepra that those shortcomings in the previous cabinet decisions had been rectified by the federal cabinet through a fresh decision on Nov 10 to meet legal requirements pointed out at previous public hearings.

The “referred decision of cabinet is hereby conveyed as policy guidelines for necessary implementation”, said the Power Division and directed Nepra that “implementation report thereof may kindly be intimated for onward sharing with cabinet”.

Under the cabinet decision, tariff rationalisation by way of adjustments for K-Electric in line with the uniform QTA application guideline duly issued to Nepra. Such adjustment shall be applicable on the consumption of July, August and September 2023 to be recovered from consumers of KE in December, January 2024 and February 2024, respectively.

Therefore, this would include the application of Discos’ second quarter adjustment of Rs0.4689 per unit and third quarter adjustment of Rs1.2489 per unit in the coming months including December to February 2024.

Now Nepra has to complete the legal requirement of a public hearing before issuing a separate schedule of tariff (SOT) after the inclusion of these adjustments.

The government has already applied Rs1.52 per unit quarterly charge on KE consumers for 12 months from December up to November 2024. The government claims to have extended Rs416bn subsidy to KE during the past five years and had budgeted another Rs298bn for the current fiscal year, taking the total toll to Rs714bn in six years.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2023