Editorial

No point in tariff hike

December 25, 2021

Power tariffs are already at an untenable rate. To further compound public misery, the K-Electric wants to up the margin and is reportedly aspiring for a renewed hike. It has submitted a requisition with the regulatory authority to raise per unit cost by Rs5.50 under the guise of fuel adjustment charges. This is squarely unacceptable, and is no more than a ploy to buoy its coffers at the expense of consumers. The utility company has for long been in the dock for not being up to mark, and penalising its valuable consumers with an inadequate infrastructure, poor transmission and abrupt and prolonged interruption in power supply.

The excuse to pass on the burden, under the premise of rise in cost of raw products on the international market, is becoming a toiling affair and devoid of rationality keeping in view the services provided at the end of the day. Moreover, the same logic is not applied when oil prices slump on the index. Last but not least, there are innumerable other charges and adjustments that have been inserted in the bill under various, and even un-prescribed heads, that keep on pinching the consumer for no fault of their own. This illogical and unfair computing of billing must come to an end. Tariffs are subject to the value of services, so what is the point in paying on flimsy pretexts only to keep the company afloat!

NEPRA, the national power regulator, should discard the K-Electric indent to raise tariff. Rather it should be reminded of its prime responsibility to come up with unhindered supply to Karachiites. All power supply companies in Pakistan are in need of reorienting their edifice and services, with the explicit aim to improve the output. A word on K-Electric’s monopoly is overdue. Why not other competitors come up in an attempt to broaden the choice and services, altogether? If cellular companies can proliferate, why not more power supply units? Similarly, the automated chip introduction of pre-paid electricity is nowhere to be seen despite attempts to introduce it. K-Electric should recast itself and come up with value-added services rather than fleecing under various ruses.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2021.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.

COMMENTS (2)

Hassaan Naeem | 2 years ago | Reply Gone are the days when editorials used to help in setting the policy direction as readers today s editorial piece from ET suggests me as a reader Alas Rising costs of electricity are a concern to everyone includes me too however haven t seen such an attempt of singling out one entity entirely while there is no mention of other government owned distribution companies at all. The tone and message of today s editorial also sounds to me as if the author has very little or actually no knowledge and understanding of how the power sector works at large in the country. First of all Fuel Charges Adjustments FCA is a nationwide phenomenon followed by all the Power Distribution Companies DISCOs including K-Electric under the defined laws of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority NEPRA . As I understand and would like to mention that FCA is a component of the electricity tariff which includes charges for fuel used in electricity generation. The price taken at the time of billing varies over the course of the month because of changes in international fuel prices. It can increase or decrease which needs adjustment and all the DISCOs in the country have no control over it. These are passed on to the customers on actual basis in line with the national policy which all electricity distribution companies including KE follow. It is also pertinent to note here that while K-Electric s hearing on Fuel Adjustment Charges for the month of November is on 3rd January 2022 the same hearing for all the other XWDISCOs for November s FCA is on 29th December 2021 yet the author did not mention about it. I also saw that in one of story it was mentioned that out of odd Rs 5 or 6 actually only Rs. 0.31 will be passed on to customers. This was an important aspect that today s editorial has completely missed which to me as reader looks like an attempt to sensationalise the news by building it upon half-cooked facts. Furthermore NEPRA being the ultimate authority have the final say on how much of the FCA requested to be passed on to the customers and during which period it has to be done to reduce inconvenience that maybe caused to the consumers. Lastly NEPRA does not take decisions on FCA based on requests only it first scrutinizes the request verify whether the Economic Merit Order EMO was followed or not and then takes the decision. It is very easy for us to point fingers or write rhetorically but hard to look for the details and come up with a factually correct information.

Replying to X