The Lahore High Court (LHC)’s Rawalpindi bench ordered the concerned authorities to suspend the Fuel Charge Adjustment (FCA) for all electricity consumers in a ruling on Tuesday.
The government had previously provided this relief for consumers with less than 200 units of electricity usage.
Headed by Justice Jawad Hassan, the bench heard a petition by Advocate Ch. Rizwan Elahi, requesting the court to withdraw the FCA on electricity bills.
The judge suspended the FCA and summoned the Chief of the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) to court at the next hearing on 15 September.
The bench also summoned the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) and the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) for the next hearing.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif ordered the withdrawal of fixed sales tax from electricity bills as well as the formulation of a new system for this purpose. He also called for an investigation into the increased sales tax ratio on shopkeepers and retailers in electricity bills that were not agreed upon.
He issued the directives while chairing a meeting to review electricity rates and the collection of fixed sales tax through electricity bills on 20 August.
The meeting was attended by the Minister for Energy Engineer, Khurram Dastagir; the Minister for Finance, Miftah Ismail; the Minister for Petroleum, Dr. Musadik Malik; the Chairman of the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR); concerned federal secretaries, and other senior officials.