Biting bills

Federal govt and Nepra notify a raise of Rs1.27 per unit in the power tariff

Good news from power providers is like expecting the unexpected. The bad ones, though, keep coming — the latest being a Rs1.27 per unit raise in the power tariff on an average, varying between 20 paisa to Rs2.60 per unit for different categories of consumers, excluding those consuming up to 300 unit a month. The federal government had announced this raise in the power tariff in October, but Nepra, the regulator, has notified it now. The Rs1.27 per unit average raise in the tariff means an additional burden of Rs2,26 billion on the consumers in a period of 12 months from the date the government notification was issued on.

Power consumers in the country are already subjected to more than half a dozen types of taxes and surcharges, which account for almost half the amount they pay as monthly bill. With ‘extra tax’, ‘further tax’ and ‘general sales tax’ already applied to power consumption, can there be any justification for surcharges like the ones to help the construction of Neelum-Jhelum power project or to settle the ever-accumulating circular debt or to service the debt obtained from private power producers? Sadly, it is the consumer who is caught at the receiving end all the time.

That the fresh raise is applicable with retrospective effect — from October when the federal government had announced the raise in tariff — means that new people at the helm are no different from their predecessors who hardly spare any area from where money can be extracted to fill financial gaps. The new raise accounts for the poor performance of distribution companies who have failed to curtail transmission and distribution losses. The uncared-for power consumers have also had to bear the brunt of unmet target of recoveries. But despite all that, uninterrupted power supply continues to be a distant dream for the heavily taxed and surcharged consumers.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2018.

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