National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) gave permission to Karachi Electric (KE) to charge Rs. 1.08 per unit additional fuel cost on account of electricity consumed in the month of October 2021.
The Karachi-based Electric company’s petition to raise the fuel charges by Rs. 1.38 per unit was discussed in the recent Nepra hearing, presided by Tauseef H. Farooqui, the chairman of the regulatory authority.
Initially, KE had only requested Nepra to increase the rates by Rs. 0.29 per unit on the 12th of November as it aimed to generate a total of Rs. 516 million additional funds from its consumers. The reason for the increase in the rate given by the company was the cost of fuel given by the Central Power Purchase Agency.
However, Karachi Electric changed its initial request of Rs. 0.29 and presented a new change in the prices of Rs. 1.32. This resulted in a huge change in the total amount from Rs. 516 million to Rs. 2.46 billion.
The change in the initial rate was caused by Nepra conducting hearings of different ex-Wapda distribution (Discos) in which the rates of fuel cost were much higher compared to the previous month. This gap had led to KE demanding a higher increase, explained the electric company.
Nepra considered KE’s plea and agreed to increase the rates by Rs. 1.08 per unit. The officials of Nepra said that the impact of this change would add up to Rs1.9bn on the consumers of KE.
