Daily Times

Deferring a decision for a month on a petition filed by the K-Electric for hike in electricity tariff for its consumers, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Tuesday asked the power distributor to file petitions for fuel cost adjustment for the months of May and June as well.

The port city’s sole power distributor requested the power regulator to allow an increase of Rs5.97 per unit in power tariff on account of monthly fuel cost adjustments (FCAs) for a period of January to March 2021 and a reduction of Rs0.86/unit for the month of April.

NEPRA Chairman Tauseef Farooqi said the consumers will have to bear additional burden of Rs5.11 per unit if the power utility’s plea is accepted. He said this huge burden would take a heavy toll on the consumers and directed the K-Electric to file petitions for fuel cost adjustments for the months of May and June as well, which, he said, would ease the burden. He further directed the power company to provide evidence of non-supply of gas by Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC). The NEPRA would take up the matter again in mid-July. Under the tariff mechanism, changes in fuel cost are passed on to consumers only on monthly basis through automatic mechanism while quarterly tariff adjustments on account of variation in power purchase price, capacity charges, variable operation and maintenance costs, use of system charges and including impact of transmission and distribution losses are built in the base tariff by the federal government.