The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) approved on Wednesday a hike of Rs2.86 per unit on power tariff as part of its fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for March 2022. This will place a monthly burden of over Rs28.9 billion on the country’s electricity consumers other than those served by K-Electric.
For K-Electric (KE) customers, the tariff has been hiked by Rs4.83 per unit.
Pakistan’s Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) had recommended an increase of Rs3.15 per unit for March. Nepra conducted a hearing to consider the proposal and approved a surge of Rs2.86. A notification is expected to be issued soon.
Last week, KE sought an increase of Rs5.27 per unit in its FCA for March 2022 to recover Rs8.592 billion from consumers. According to a petition filed by KE Director Finance Ayaz Jaffar Ahmed, the calculation for the month of March was based on Central Power Purchasing Agency -Guaranteed’s (CPPA-G) invoice for February 2022 and was subject to adjustments based on Nepra’s decision.
Earlier, in a meeting arranged by Nepra, the CPPA-G was held responsible for load-shedding in the country as it has failed to make payments to power plants to purchase fuel, due to which they have been shut down. The country is facing up to 6 to 10 hours of load shedding a day due to shortfall of up to 5000 MW.
