ISLAMABAD, Feb 24: The government on Saturday decided to increase electricity tariff by 10 per cent, with effect from Feb 24, for all categories of consumers except those who consume 50 units per month or less.

The announcement came hours after the government notified a 10 per cent reduction in the prices of natural gas for commercial consumers and 7.82 per cent for domestic users.

A spokesman for the ministry of water and power said the increase in electricity tariff was unavoidable. “Otherwise the Water and Power Development Authority and KESC would have gone broke.”

He said the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority had proposed a 33 per cent increase in tariff, but the government lowered it to 10 per cent.

In a statement, the ministry claimed that the government had increased power tariff for the first time since Nov 2003 despite an increase of 90 per cent in oil prices and 54 per cent in gas charges since then.

“If the decision to raise tariff were not taken, the Wapda deficit would have touched Rs80 billion and that of KESC Rs17 billion. Despite the tariff increase, the government will still have to provide a subsidy of Rs54.5 billion to Wapda consumers and about Rs14.15 billion to KESC consumers,” the statement said.