Impact of power price hike to be 'catastrophic'.

LAHORE -- With a staggering increase of 46.77 per cent in electricity charges about to be included in monthly bills, sectoral experts, economists, sociologists and politicians across the divide have a consensus: 'It will have a catastrophic impact on an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis.'

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has already approved a hike of Rs7.91 per unit in the base price - from the current Rs16.91 to Rs24.82 per unit - and the government is about to notify it to take effect from the new fiscal, if not notified earlier.

The normal tax rate on electricity bills is around 22pc, adding which would jack up the per-unit cost by another Rs5.46 - taking the effective rate to Rs30.28 per unit for domestic consumers.

'It is going to be a social and economic disaster; pushing a few million people further down the poverty line, reducing the middle class and increasing the lower middle, hiking the crime rate and deepening social chaos,' said Muhammad Shabbir, a professor of sociology.

Visitors may see electricity charges in their restaurant, hotel bills, stakeholders warn

The government may not benefit either, as electricity theft will go up substantially, if not correspondingly, neutralising the intended impact. Along with theft, corruption would add up significantly. He said these kinds of burdens would quickly turn into an existential challenge that the majority could not meet. Add similar pressures from two other (oil and gas prices) sources, and the fears of social chaos would assume a tragic proportion, he alarmed.

'The electricity price increase will be a multi-pronged and multiplying tragedy: shopkeepers will pay more bills and ask for higher rates. Hotel owners will now pay additional bills and add them to customer charges. Expect even vulcanising shops to ask for more because running their machines is now becoming costlier. People will suffer, and their sufferings will be permanent fodder for the media to lament on a daily basis. Given the kind of governance the country is experiencing, no one will know the actual impact of the increase and what is being passed on to hapless consumers,' warned Muhammad Ramzan, who ran a showroom and an eatery in the city.

'The most lamentable part of this increase is that it was avoidable,' insists Dr Farrukh Saleem, an economist and a columnist. Had successive governments been able to...