Upward trend in the electricity rates continue as the government has once again increased the power tariff of XDISCOS by Rs 0.18 per unit for the second and third quarters of 2019-20.
By Fawad Yousafzai
The electricity tariff has been increased by Rs. 0.15 per unit while an additional charge of Rs. 0.03 per unit will be charged from the domestic consumers having consumption more than 300 units, said a notification issued here Monday. After the increase the average electricity tariff in the country will go up from Rs 13.35 per unit to Rs 13.52 per unit.
According a notification issued by the Ministry of Energy Ministry (power division) in pursuant to Section 31(7) of the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997, the Federal Government is pleased to direct that with effect from December 01, 2020 with immediate effect that the following amendment shall be made in its notification SRO 1472(1)12019 dated November 29, 2019 and SRO 1071 (1)/2020 dated October 19, 2020 namely: a) Schedule-I and Schedule-Il of SRO 1472(D/2019 dated November 29, 2019 is deleted with effect from 1st December 2020. b) Para c) is added in SRO 1071(1)/2020 dated October 19, 2020 with additional charge of Rs. 0.15 per unit and additional charge per SRO date 29th November 2019 on all category of consumers (except for lifeline, domestic consumers and commercial consumers for peak load requirement less than 5 kW), and additional charge of Rs. 0.03 per unit on domestic consumers having consumption more than 300 units and domestic ToU, to account for cross subsidy, so that the consolidated revenue requirement as determined and notified vide SRO dated October 19, 2020 is maintained.
The said adjustment shall be shown separately in the consumer’s bill by the XWDlSCOs and along with abovementioned additional charges applicable for next ten-monthly billing cycles effective from December 01, 2020, said the notification.
In pursuance of Section 31 (7) of Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997 and as per NEPRA approved mechanism of Quarterly Tariff Adjustment, the NEPRA determined the periodic quarterly adjustments (QTAs) for 2nd and 3rd quarters of FY 2019-20 and recommended the same to Federal Government on September 24, 2020 for notification, according a summary of the cabinet.
Decision will empower XDISCO to transfer burden of Rs15 billion to power consumers across Pakistan
ECC approved the proposal to notify the tariff increase of Rs 1.62/ kWh across all categories of consumers except life-line consumers on 30 September 2020. The Cabinet ratified the decision of ECC on 6 Oct 2020 and directed that electricity price will remain unchanged for all consumers.
Therefore the quarterly adjustments, determined by NEPRA, may be notified after incorporating cross subsidy and continuing the additional electricity rates as imposed through SRO dated Jun 282019, and September 30, 2019 so that electricity rates remains unchanged. The Cabinet further directed that the difference of Rs 14.38 Billion will be adjusted as additional subsidy to power sector during current financial year
As a result of this Cabinet decision Rs 0.14 (Rs 1.62-1.48) of Q2 and Q3 2019-20 quarterly adjustments was not passed to the consumers. Quarterly adjustment of Rs. 0.1456/kWh (National Average) for Q 1 of FY 2019-20 expired on 30” November 2020.
It was proposed to the cabinet that an additional charge inclusive of already applicable additional charge vide SRO dated 28″ November 2019 be imposed.
As a result of this measure NEPRA determined adjustments for 2™ and 3° quarters of FY 2019-20 would be fully passed on to the consumers for the remaining ten months of the determination.
Originally published at The nation