Power consumers to pay Rs1,000b more in tariff

Surrendering to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) pressure, the government has decided to put an additional burden of Rs1,000 billion on the power consumers, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday. 

Quoting sources, the TV channel reported that the government had removed all the obstacles in order to achieve that goal. 

The NEPRA ordinance authorises the government to increase or decrease the electricity tariff. Earlier, the government gave policy guidelines to the NEPRA.

The government is likely to take the decision to levy tax of Rs676 billion on power consumers in few days. If taken, LESCO would be able to collect Rs365 billion from the consumers; FESCO Rs269 billion, while IESCO would be authorised to collect Rs42 billion.    

Meanwhile, in yet another instance of yielding to the IMF pressure, the Privatization Commission has accelerated the process of the sale of power distribution companies. 

Sources told 24News that making the provincial governments shareholders in power distribution companies had been proposed. 

Moreover, it has been decided to hand over five loss incurring Discos to the private sector.  

Similarly, a proposal has been put forward to hand over the administration of Sukkur, Quetta, Hyderabad, Peshawar and erstwhile tribal areas electric supply companies to the private parties. 

The federal government, on the other hand, will assist in compensating these companies for their line losses, recovery and improvement in their infrastructures.