ISLAMABAD, March 8: The government on Wednesday notified an across the board 23 paisa per unit increase in power tariff for the consumers of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation with immediate effect, it is learnt.

The increase, however, would not be applicable to lifeline consumers who used up to 50 units per month, a senior government official told Dawn.

“The notification has been issued on Wednesday for publication in the official gazette,” he said.

The increase in tariff will be applicable for domestic, commercial, industrial and agricultural consumers at a uniform rate of 23 paisa per unit.

The tariff increase was made for fuel and other pass through items during April-June 2005 period under the quarterly fuel adjustment formula. The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) had determined the increase in last July but the government withheld its notification.

Informed sources said the tariff adjustment for eight distribution companies of Wapda would also be notified during the current month as most of the complex issues on tariff revision had been resolved.

The sources said that Nepra had been asked by the government to finalize and send its determinations on electricity tariffs for distribution companies of Wapda within 15 days so that they could be notified before the end of this month.

The sources said the KESC had submitted a fresh request for tariff increase due to fuel price increase for July-September 2005 and up to December 2005.

The sources said the KESC had earlier requested for about 47 paisa per unit increase on the basis of an increase in the cost of fuel and power purchased from the independent power producers and Kanupp.

However, the Nepra allowed only 23 paisa per unit increase because of legal constraints. Under the law, Nepra cannot allow more than 2.5 and 1.5 per cent increase in fuel price and private power purchase, respectively, in any quarter of a year.

Nepra is also required under the law to revise electricity tariff for KESC every year in July for indexation of consumer price index-based inflation as no structural change in tariff could be made for seven years i.e. up to 2009.

This will be for the first time since privatization of the KESC last year that electricity tariff has been increased for Karachi where about two million consumers are registered and number of illegal consumers is said to be much higher.

The sources said the KESC’s total losses during October- December 2005 stood at Rs5.9 billion, which was about Rs2.8 3 billion higher than its own fixed target of Rs3.1 billion for the said period.