The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) is likely to approve an increase of Rs. 4.68 per unit for Pakistan’s electricity consumers for the month of April.
It held a hearing for a petition by the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA), which had requested it to increase the price of one-unit electricity for all the consumers (except those in Karachi) to Rs. 4.94 per unit on account of the monthly Fuel Cost Adjustment (FCA) for the month of February.
The public hearing was chaired by Chairman NEPRA, Tauseef H. Farooqi, and attended by its members Rafiq Ahmed Sheikh and Engineer Maqsood Anwar Khan.
The actual FCA is Rs 4.68 for the month of February, according to the NEPRA data check.
Electricity consumers were charged Rs. 5.94 per unit on account of the monthly Fuel Cost Adjustment (FCA) for the month of January.
While hearing the petition, the Chairman remarked that the February FCA was Rs. 1.26 per unit less than January’s, which was only for one month. Also, this increase will not be applicable to K-Electric’s consumers.
Furthermore, the NEPRA will issue its detailed decision after further scrutiny of the data.
Farooqi remarked that “fourteen percent less electricity was generated from hydel sources in February,” and that the output of furnace oil and LNG had mitigated the disparity. He also mentioned that the monthly FCA is higher mainly because of a global spike in fuel prices.
Member Sindh, Rafiq Sheikh, asked for an audit of the prior fuel adjustment and claimed that there was an unusually high discrepancy between the CPPA’s and the NEPRA’s statistical data.
The officials gave a briefing to the NEPRA and mentioned that the violation of the merit order in power generation had cost the consumers a hefty Rs. 1.37 billion in terms of expensive generation.
NEPRA will announce its decision through a notification in the coming days.
