Citizens across the country are literally paying the price for the incompetence of electricity distribution companies and the power division.
Consumers are forced to pay 43 paisas per unit for the past circular debt and the markup interest.
The federal government is also collecting 17.5% general sales tax (GST) apart from the PTV fee and the monthly fuel price adjustment.
According to sources, apart from the 1.95 paisas quarterly adjustment approved by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on the Rs11.93 per unit tariff, consumers also have to pay 80 paisas in terms of past adjustments and 43 paisas as FC surcharge.
Consumers have a notified tariff of 16.60 paisas per unit. Commercial consumers are also subject to income tax. A sum of Rs35 is also being deducted as PTV fee.
Read more: Further power tariff hike on cards
Several consumers are suffering because of the different rates under the slab system.
Customers are being charged more than Rs23 per unit under the slab system because of the time of use.
Due to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) pressure, the tariff will be gradually increased for customers using up to 300 units in phases.
The sources said whenever the price of electricity increased, the Federal Board of Revenue received additional revenue.
The federal government is preparing to increase the price of electricity by Rs4.5 per unit in the coming months to meet the condition set by the IMF and the tariff fixed by Nepra.
Also read: Karachiites angry at long power outages
In the coming months, whenever the government raises the price of electricity, it will generate additional revenue in terms of GST.
The federal government is also worried about the piling circular debt.
It has to give Rs900 billion to power plants in capacity payments.
The power plants running on furnace oil have been closed due to the low demand for electricity. But the government is still paying them billions of rupees in capacity payments.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has assigned the task of taking steps to increase power demand to his special assistant Tabish Gauhar, so that the closed power plants could be made operational again, reducing the burden of capacity payments on the government.
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