NEPRA slashes tariff by Rs0.43 per unit.

ISLAMABAD -- The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Wednesday approved to cut electricity rates by Rs0.43 per unit on account of fuel adjustment for the month of April 2021.

Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA-G) will reimburse Rs0.43 per unit or Rs4.4 billion that it had charged over and above the actual electricity cost from the power consumers during April.

In a public hearing on CPPA-G's petition for April on account of fuel adjustment, the regulator noted that after the calculation CPPA-G needs to return Rs0.86 per unit, against Rs0.84 per unit requested by the petitioner, to power consumers for the month of April. However, half of this amount (Rs0.43 per unit) will be adjusted against previous adjustments for the past months.

The hearing, which was presided over by Nepra Chairman Tauseef H Farooqi, also noted that instead of RLNG, expensive fuel was utilised to run the power plants in violation of the merit order.

During the hearing, Nepra officials said that running the plants without merit order cost the consumers' multimillion rupee worth losses. The power companies had burdened the consumers with multimillion rupees by not using RLNG for power generation.

Nepra approved a reduction of Rs0.86 per unit in fuel adjustment. However, the regulator allowed past adjustment of Rs4.47 billion to CPPA, depriving consumers of half (Rs0.43 per unit) of the relief and allowed it to pass on another half of the amount (Rs0.43 reduction) to consumers. The consumers will get their extra charged Rs4.4 billion in the next bills. The decision will not apply to consumers with 100 units and K-Electric consumers.

Speaking on the occasion, the Nepra chairman said that he had written to the government to not carry out load-shedding but the government has to do this, adding that the non-operation of better capacity plants was an additional burden on the consumers.

In collaboration with the ministry, a monthly...