ISLAMABAD-The electricity consumers will face another hike of Rs3.23 per unit in tariff as the federal government has filed a motion seeking NEPRA nod for the imposition of surcharge on the power consumers for the fiscal year 2023-24.
In a motion filed by the federal government with respect to Consumer End Tariff recommendations of XWDlSCOs and K-Electric, it has been requested that the already approved surcharges of Rs 3.82/unit and Rs 1.43/unit through NEPRA decision dated March 06, 2023, are not sufficient to meet the electric services obligations of government. Federal government sought the inclusion of revised surcharge amount for inclusion in schedule of tariff of XWDISCOs and K-Electric. The federal government has requested to enhance the surcharge by Rs 1.80/unit from the already approved Rs 1.43/unit to Rs 3.23/unit for the next fiscal year.
It is worth mentioning here that the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority had already allowed the federal government to impose an additional surcharge of Rs 3.39/unit and Rs1/unit from Mar-Jun 2023 and Jul 2023 to June 2024 respectively, having a cumulative impact of Rs 149b on the power consumers.
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With the application of additional Rs 3.39/unit, total surcharge becomes Rs 3.82/unit for the four months of 2022-23 having an impact of Rs 75 billion and for FY 2023-24, additional surcharge of Rs. 3.39/unit will be reduced to Rs. 1/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 having an impact of Rs 74 billion, said NEPRA decision issued in the matter of motion of the federal government with respect to recommendation of consumer-end tariff for XWDISCOs and K-Electric. In view thereof, the Authority has decided to allow application of the surcharge to be recovered from different categories of consumers of K-Electric, for the period from March to June 2023 and for the FY 2023-24, to cover the markup charges of PHL loans. The Power Division said that the additional surcharge is intended to cover the markup charges of PHL loans not covered through already applicable FC surcharge of Rs.0.43/unit. It was also explained that with these additional surcharge, an additional amount of Rs.75 billion will be billed for the period from March to June 2023, against which around Rs.68 billion will be recovered at an expected recovery of 90%.
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Similarly, for the FY 2023-24, with the additional surcharge of Rs.1/unit, an amount of around Rs.74 billion will be recovered assuming recovery @90%.
Regarding, payment of principal amount of PHL loans, the Ministry explained that the federal government has already paid an amount of Rs.202 billion of PHL till FY 2021-22, through its fiscal space, thus reducing the balance from over Rs.1 trillion to Rs.800 billion as of June 30, 2022. Similarly, for the FY 2022-23 an additional amount of Rs.35 billion will be paid and this further will reduce the overall financing cost.
The mark up of remaining loans is being paid from revenue collected through electricity sales and the same constrains the essential fuel and debt payments to the suppliers. However, in its fresh motion, federal government has sought the NEPRA nod for allowing to impose a surcharge of Rs 3.23/unit on power consumers, instead of the already approved Rs 1.43/unit, from July 1, 2023. NEPRA will hold public hearing on the government motion on March 16.
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