Electricity consumers can heave a sigh of relief as the government doesn’t plan on increasing the power tariff despite reports.
The Ministry of Energy (Power) clarified today that there is no electricity tariff increase under consideration. “PM Shehbaz Sharif has issued clear directions to not increase electricity tariff”.
“News items are misleading, as based upon an internal exercise proposed by Finance Div & shelved by Minister for Power,” the ministry stated in a tweet.
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The clarification comes after reports that the government has devised a plan to raise the electricity tariff via the imposition of a new surcharge in an effort to restart the stalled International Monetary Fund (IMF) program.
Pakistan is currently facing a money crisis, with lawmakers scrambling to get additional funds to offset losses from the recent floods. Despite today’s clarification by the Energy Ministry, authorities in Islamabad and the IMF are in talks about the 9th review of the Extended Fund Facility, with power tariffs reportedly on the table.
It is worth mentioning that as of November, the country’s power generation has gone down by 22 percent on a month-on-month (MoM) basis to 8,367 gigawatts per hour (GWh), while solar generation is up 56 percent YoY.
During November 2022, fuel costs for power generation decreased by 5 percent YoY or 34 percent MoM to an average of Rs. 6/KWh, compared to an average cost of Rs. 9.02/KWh in October.
