 to raise electricity rates by up to Rs 11 per unit for household consumers){kind=link}
The government has asked the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to raise electricity rates by up to Rs 11 per unit for household consumers consuming more than 700 units of electricity per month across the country to bear the burden of low consumption consumers.
According to the report, these rates approved by the federal government under the ‘Tariff Re-basing 2022-23’ for consumers with a monthly consumption slab of 101 to 200 units and above were set by NEPRA few weeks ago Rs.7.91 per unit increase significantly higher than the uniform national average.
According to the application written by the power division to NEPRA, apart from massive cross-subsidy between different consumer slabs, the government will still provide Rs 234 billion in subsidies, including Rs 220 billion to the erstwhile WAPDA distribution companies and Rs. 14 billion for K-Electric (K-E).
It said the request is based on the government’s approval to modify the decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to the extent that consumers consuming less than 100 units and falling under the vulnerable category will be charged Rs 19.56 per unit.
Rs. 13.48 will be charged per unit instead of unit and the difference in income will be adjusted across categories.
The government has informed NEPRA that it wants to increase electricity prices for consumers consuming 100 units per month by around Rs 4.06 per unit instead of Rs 7.91 per unit fixed by NEPRA and hence shift the burden on heavy consumers.
This has been done to remove the tariff anomaly, under the current tariff scheme, customers who consume less than 200 units for 6 consecutive months are considered as ‘protected customers’ and any change in their tariff It won’t happen.
On the other hand, the consumers who consume the first 100 units are considered in the category of ‘unprotected consumers’ in case of consuming more than the fixed limit even for a month, their rates will now be increased by Rs 4.06 per unit in a phased manner.
Under the government directive, the basic tariff for consumers using 101 to 200 units will be increased by Rs 7.21 per unit to Rs 18.95 per unit, while the rate for 201 to 300 units will be increased from Rs 8.31 to Rs 22.14 per unit. The rate for 301 to 400 units will increase by Rs 4.30 per unit to Rs 25.53 while the rate for 401 to 500 units will increase by Rs 6.51 to Rs 27.74 per unit.
Similarly, the base rate for 501 to 600 units will be increased by Rs 7.93 to Rs 29.16 per unit and for 601 to 700 units will be Rs 30.30 per unit representing an increase of Rs 8.97 per unit.
The basic tariff for consumption of more than 700 units per month will increase by Rs 11 per unit to Rs 35.22 per unit.
The base rate for Time of Use (TOU) meter will increase from Rs 10.06 to Rs 34.39 and for peak hours will be Rs 28.07 per unit.
NEPRA will complete the formalities of public hearing today as per the court order on the need to adjust the tariff subsidies allocated by the federal government for immediate implementation under IMF conditions.