Amid the tall claims being made about a welfare state and reforming the power sector, the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA), seemingly, is looking for multiplying the hardships experienced by the inflation-hit people with a request to hike the electricity tariff by 57 paisas, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Friday.

In this connection, the CPPA has filed an application with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) which will hold a public hearing on December 17.

This increase is being demanded under the monthly-fuel adjustment – a repeatedly-used tool to further burden the consumers who are already facing the worst inflation rate in the country’s history amid the ever-increasing employment and zero increase in salaries or income.

Last month, a total of 9.97 billion units of electricity were generated at a cost of Rs43.17 billion. And the most expensive share of this generation was diesel at a rate of Rs19.83 per unit followed by Rs12.17 for furnace oil.

However, it doesn’t make any sense given the fact that the NEPRA already banned power generation through diesel and furnace oil.

Meanwhile, the corresponding cost for the locally-produced gas and the imported LNG was Rs6.70 and Rs6.55, clearly showing the LNG was the cheapest fuel, which makes the government decision of not importing its required amount even more questionable.

PML-N Vice-president Maryam Nawaz and PPP leaders have been warning about the gas crisis and the resultant adverse effects on the power tariff only because the government did not import the LNG as per domestic requirements.

Meanwhile, it is said that the line losses caused a loss of 10 paisas per unit last month.