K-Electric (KE) said on Tuesday that following the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s (Nepra) recent decision on a set of review motions, its average tariff had reduced by Rs7.6/kWh, which would have “far-reaching consequences for its stakeholders, including consumers”.
According to KE, power regulatory authority’s decision has resulted in a reduction of its average tariff from the previously announced Rs39.97/kWh to Rs32.37/kWh.
On May 27, Nepra had set KE’s base tariff at Rs39.97 per unit for the fiscal year 2023-24, which was almost 40pc higher than even the national average tariff of about Rs28 per unit in 2025-26 for the 10 public sector power distribution companies (Discos) in the country.
The delta between the Discos’ average and KE’s tariff was transferred to the taxpayers through the federal budget in the form of tariff differential subsidy. Subsequently, motions for leave for reviews were filed by multiple parties, on which Nepra’s decision was notified yesterday.
In a press release following the decision, KE noted that Nepra had issued its decision on the motions filed by various parties, concerning KE’s multi-year tariff (MYT) determinations for the control period of FY 2024-30.
“The decision covers several key areas, including the MYT determination for KE’s generation power plants, the MYT determination for KE’s transmission, distribution (network), and supply businesses for FY 2024 to FY 2030, the transmission and distribution investment plan and losses assessment for FY 2024 to FY 2030, and the write-off claims of KE for MYT 2017–2023.
“With respect to the write-off claims, Nepra has upheld its earlier decision. However, for the other matters, Nepra has significantly altered its prior determinations in a manner that, according to KE, is not sustainable for the company and will have far-reaching consequences for its stakeholders, including consumers,” KE said.
It added that it was currently “reviewing Nepra’s decisions in detail and will exercise all available remedies as permitted under the applicable laws and regulatory framework”.
Nepra’s decision
Nepra’s decision on the review petitions were detailed in a notification that was issued yesterday and is available with Dawn.com.
According to the notification, in light of discussions on the issue of reference fuel cost component, Nepra directed KE to file revised fuel cost adjustment claims for FY 2023-24 for consideration and approval. The notification said power purchase price references for FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26 “would be determined once KE files its revised annual adjustment/ indexation request for these periods”.
Moreover, concerns were also raised before regarding the replacement of “long-standing price-cap tariff regime historically applied to KE” with a “revenue-cap approach” that allowed the “actualisation of units sent out without any associated performance benchmarks”.
On this issue, Nepra said it did “not see any rationale to change its earlier decision, and hence has decided to maintain its earlier decision in this matter”.
