KE tariff upped by up to Rs4.45

Consumers will pay additional payments in October and November this year

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government on Friday notified an increase of up to Rs4.45 per unit for the citizens of Karachi for the first quarter adjustment of the last fiscal year following the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s (Nepra) nod to the move.

“The power tariff for K-Electric [KE] consumers has been increased [between the range of] Rs1.49 to Rs4.45 per unit,” the notification read.

Nepra approved the hike last month, it added.

It continued that the additional payments would be charged from KE consumers in the months of October and November this year.

Read more: ECC okays tariff hike for KE

The regulator wrote to the federal government in September for the issuance of a notification that it had “decided to allow application of 1st quarterly adjustment of FY2022-23 ranging from Rs1.4874 to Rs4.4547/kWh for different consumer categories, except lifeline consumers based on the consumption of February 2023 and March 2023, to be recovered from the consumers of K-Electric in months of October and November 2023, respectively”.

The federal government had requested the regulator to increase the KE tariff to reduce its subsidy payments to Karachi’s power utility.

Last month, Nepra also allowed an increase of Rs3.28 per unit for KE consumers as part of a uniform national tariff hike to be charged across the country for six months -- October 2023 to March 2024.

This means that the KE consumers will be paying an additional cost of between Rs4.76 and Rs7.73 per unit depending on their slabs and categories in October and November this year, and then Rs3.28 from December 2023 to March 2024.

As per the regulator’s determination, KE’s domestic consumers in residential category from first 100 units to 300 units per month will pay an additional charge of Rs1.49 per unit in addition to the sum of Rs3.28 per unit, which will remain in place till March 2024.

The domestic consumers using 301 to 700 units and above will have to pay an additional sum of Rs3.21 per unit in the months of October and November this year in addition to Rs3.28 per unit for six months.

All other consumer categories will have to pay an extra amount of Rs4.45 as well as the six-month charge of Rs3.28 per unit.

On Thursday, Nepra approved an increase in the price of electricity by Rs1.71 per unit on account of fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for the month of August 2023 and issued a notification for this purpose.

The tariff hike will be shown separately in the consumers’ bills and the effects of this raise will be reflected in the bills of October 2023.

The notification read that the increase would not apply to lifeline and KE consumers.

(With input from agencies)