Equalisation surcharge: High court restrains Wapda

‘It seems that industries in Punjab are discriminated against’.


Express October 18, 2011

LAHORE:


The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday restrained the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) from collecting four per cent Equalisation (EQ) surcharge from industrial units in the Punjab and ordered the federal government to submit a detailed report.


Justice Muhammad Khalid Mehmood Khan issued this order on a writ petition by M/s First Treet Manufacturing Modarba and also ordered the federal government to apprise the court about fuel supplies including furnace oil, and Sui gas supply to independent power producers (IPPs) and the total production of the IPPs in response to the supplies.

The judge suspended the notification issued on May 6, 2011 and directed Wapda to collect only two per cent surcharge imposed on industrial units/factories all over the country. Justice Khan said, “It seems that industries in Punjab are being discriminated against.”

He directed the Advocate General to inform the court how the federal government could impose the impugned electricity surcharge consumed in one province by excluding the other provinces. The petitioner through counsel submitted that the federal government had levied the two per cent “EQ surcharge” through a notification issued on March 15, 2011 on all industries/factories in the country.

The counsel said after three months the Ministry of Water and Power and Nepra issued another notification on May 6, 2011 in which a further 2 per cent “EQ Surcharge” was imposed only on industries operating in the Punjab.

He said this act was highly discriminatory against the industry of the province and now factory owners in Punjab were paying a 4 per cent EQ Surcharge to Wapda.

The counsel argued that the impugned surcharge had been levied by the federal government under Nepra Act 1997 which only empowers the government to impose tariff on the basis of determinations made by Nepra.

He further said that Nepra had not determined such a surcharge and neither would it determine one in the future. The counsel prayed the court that the surcharge on the consumption of electricity be set aside as being ultra vires to the law and the Constitution.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2011.

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