The federal government was given permission by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Thursday to implement a quarterly rate adjustment of Rs2.75 per unit for all consumers nationwide for a period of three months, from April to June, with an additional revenue impact of Rs85 billion.
For the second quarter of the current fiscal year, which runs from October to December 2023, the rise was permitted under the quarterly tariff adjustment (QTA).
The Power Division of the Ministry of Energy announced that the price adjustment will result in an increase in electricity bills of Rs1.68 per unit compared to the previous month.
According to documents made public by Nepra on its website, the tariff adjustment would be applicable to all consumer categories—with the exception of lifeline users, which would include both K-Electric and ex-Wapda distribution businesses’ customers.
According to a letter, the authority’s decision was being forwarded to the federal government for notification and action prior to Nepra’s announcement.
The authority stated that once the current applicable quarterly adjustments expired in March, it has implemented the raise “in the interest of consumers” as of April 1.
For the second quarter (October–December) of the current fiscal year, power distribution companies had submitted a new claim in January, requesting an additional Rs82 billion to be charged to customers at a rate of almost Rs4.5 per unit for three months.
The Discos have requested in their individual tariff appeals to collect around Rs81.5 billion from their customers over the course of the next three months in accordance with the quarterly tariff adjustment (QTA) for the October–December 2023 period.
For the second quarter of the current fiscal year, the companies sought an increase in order to finance the additional financial impact of capacity charges resulting from currency devaluation and interest rate hikes, in addition to the market operator fee, the impact of transmission and distribution losses on fuel cost adjustments, the cost of incremental consumption, and variable operation and maintenance charges.
For the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal year, consumers are currently paying roughly Rs3.28 per unit QTA. This amount will be applied for six months, from October 2023 to March 2024, in order to collect more than Rs200 billion from power users nationwide, including K-Electric’s customers.
Customers are also being charged another QTA for July–September 2023 at a rate of Rs1.15 per unit for the billing period of January–March 2024 in order to earn an additional Rs22.3bn.
