Nepra links transfer of Rs128b to power consumers with legal opinion.

ISLAMABAD -- The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Thursday linked the transfer of Rs 128bn to power consumers on account of additional surcharge and staggered FCAs with legal opinion, saying the regulator is neither accepting nor rejecting the government motions till it is furnished.

NEPRA held a public hearing on the government's petitions to allow the imposition of Rs3.39 per unit additional surcharge and transfer of upto Rs 14.23/unit staggered FCAs to power consumers. In two separate public hearings on the motions filed by the federal government, NEPRA has said that the regulator is not clear whether the transfer of both the burdens is within their domain or not and sought legal opinion on the matter. Nepra Chairman Tauseef H. Farooqi chaired the proceedings, while the authority's members were also present. In the first hearing, regulator nod was sought to allow putting burden of an additional surcharge of Rs3.39/unit on the electricity consumers, having an impact of Rs76 billion from March to June 2023. The NEPRA official said that already, Re0.43/unit is being charged to consumers and now the government wants to increase it to Rs3.82/unit. Additional surcharge of Rs3.39/unit will be recovered for period from March to June 2023, to cover the markup charges of PHL loans not covered through already applicable FC surcharge of 0.43/kwh for FY2022-23. After four months additional surcharge of Rs3.39/ unit will be reduced to Rs1/unit to cover the additional markup charges of PHL loans not covered through already applicable FC surcharge @0.43/unit; the total surcharge becomes Rs. 1.43/unit for FY 2023-24. The levying of additional surcharge of Rs3.39/unit in electricity tariff will enable the government to pay off Rs120b interest on the loans of the Power Holding Company.

With the application of additional surcharge of Rs3.39/unit, the total surcharge will reach Rs3.82/unit for the four months (Mar-June). Currently, the power consumers are paying Re0.43/unit surcharge to clear Rs44b for paying off the interest on the loans of the PHL. Now with the levying of special surcharge of Rs3.39/unit, additional Rs76b will be collected from the power consumers within next four months March to June 2023. Out of the total outstanding finance facilities of Rs. 800.253 billion, as of June 30,2022, servicing of loans amounting to Rs. 246.384 billion is being managed by imposing Financing Cost (FC) surcharge levied @ Re. 0.43/unit...