Pakistan

Costly power: Top court grills NEPRA over tariff fixing procedure

Electricity derived from gas should cost less: CJ.

Our Correspondent October 23, 2013 1 min read

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD:

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday said the government had put all the burden of line losses on electricity consumers, who were paying bills regularly.

He was leading a three-judge bench that scrutinised the mechanism of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to determine power tariff.

Justice Chaudhry noted that electricity generated from oil and gas could not be priced equal. “The power generated through gas should cost less to consumers and its price should also be different from oil-generated electricity,” he added.

Nepra Chairman Khawaja Naeem told the court that the authority assigned different power tariffs to different companies. “The Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) is the most efficient company; therefore, its tariff is lower as compared to other companies,” Naeem said.

He admitted that the government was providing subsidy to the inefficient companies, and that Nepra would not have increased tariff if the government had not withdrawn the subsidy.

“Nepra is trying to give relief to the poor as 30%-40% consumers are using less than 50 units and the government is receiving Rs2 per unit from them,” he added.

The court asked the Nepra chief how the authority could increase tariff without allowing the stakeholders to participate in the process.

Expressing its resolve to give a judgment on Nepra’s process of tariff determination, the court suggested to the chairman to engage a counsel.

During the hearing, the Nepra chairman failed to satisfy the bench about the procedure to determine tariff.

The chief justice asked him how the government could intervene in Nepra functioning? He stressed that the process of tariff determination should be transparent as the court would not allow monopoly of anyone in this regard.

The court also sought from Nepra complete record of the public hearing regarding increase in power tariff during August and October, and issued notice to attorney general of Pakistan to appear before the court on the next date of hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2013.