KARACHI, Nov 26: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority is holding a public hearing in Islamabad for determination of generation tariff of a Karachi-based power plant.

However, stakeholders of the power sector have alleged that the electricity regulator is trying to avoid receiving their input by holding the public hearing in the capital. A notice issued by Nepra says that the Defence Housing Authority Cogen Ltd has requested the Nepra to approve its tariff for sale of power to the KESC.

"The petition stands admitted by the authority. Notice of admission of the petition by the authority and salient features of the petition has already been published in newspapers whereupon all stakeholders in the electric power sector, including the general public, were invited to participate in the proceedings," reads the notice, which goes on to say that the hearing will be held in Islamabad on Dec 8.

The chairman of the Site Association, Nisar Shaikhani, told Dawn that it was beyond him why the public hearing was being held in Islamabad when all the three parties -- the buyer, the seller and the consumers - were based in Karachi.

"We wrote an application to Nepra, urging it to take a leaf out of the book of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority which reversed its decision of holding a public hearing in Islamabad when it was pointed out that the Sui Southern Gas Company is headquartered in Karachi. But Nepra seems to be determined to disregard the concerns of the people of Karachi," he said.

Mr Shaikhani said that Nepra would benefit immensely from the input of the consumers of Karachi if the public hearing was held in the city. "Few Karachi-based consumers would be willing to spend a couple of thousand rupees to travel to Islamabad and take part in the hearing," he added.

A representative of another intervener, Mushtaq & Co, alleged that Nepra was trying to disregard the input of the consumers of Karachi by holding the public hearing in Islamabad.

He added that the stakeholders of the power sector had great reservations about the petition submitted by the DHA Cogen Ltd. Their concerns would go unvoiced if the public hearing was held in Islamabad, he said.

The managing director of the Defence Housing Authority, Brig Maqsood Hussain, told Dawn that the reason why the public hearing was being held in Islamabad, was that the DHA wanted the process of the determination of generation tariff to be over at the earliest.

"The tariff offered by the DHA Cogen Ltd is linked to the loans the company will obtain from banks. Since their interest rates have been swinging upwards, we want to complete this process as soon as possible.

Nepra told us that it would take some time to hold a hearing in Karachi, so we offered that we could come to Islamabad if the hearing was held without delay," he explained. The Nepra registrar, Mehjoob Ahmed Mirza, was not available for comment.