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March 28, 2024
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Lahore
EditorialAnother power shock

Another power shock

This is the season of meeting of meeting tough terms by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ensure the release of an economic bailout at the earliest and the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s (NEPRA’s) announcement to phased increase of Rs7.91 per unit in ‘uniform national tariff’ is the painful part of the programme. The authority held the public hearing on July 20 and later on came up with the notification. The hearing heard powerful arguments against the proposed increase from members of the public, but the authority went ahead with the increase within two days and the power distribution companies are now fully empowered to charge the new price. The only relief given to the power consumer is that “As per the request, the consumer-end tariff will be increased in three phases i.e. July, Aug-Sept and October onward”, says the NEPRA notification. And another soft feature of the notification is lifeline consumers (those using up to 100 units) and protected category of consumers (those using 101-200 units per month) are immune to the new hike. Another clause of the notification is that the tariff for certain high-consumption residential consumers is as high as Rs11 per unit so as to cover the extra burden of consumers with lower consumption.

As the country reels from hours-long loadshedding, these tariff hikes become more unbearable. The government is already struggling with fuel shortage because of the influx of European buyers for LNG, coal and furnace oil after their self-imposed sanctions on Russia. Meanwhile, the Miftah-led ministry has set a target of Rs7,400 billion tax revenue in the federal budget, the recent tariff increase would generate additional revenue of Rs893 billion in 2022-23 to meet the annual revenue requirement of about Rs2.52 trillion to power companies. What a powerless time for both the government and the public.

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