Govt concedes marginal power tariff surges

According to Dawn, the Power Division has finally conceded that the marginal power price rose significantly due to regional war, and that discounted rates granted to one select industrial group have weighed on other consumers. The admission came on Monday at a public hearing convened by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra). Case officers told the hearing that the average power supply cost now stands at Rs32 per unit.

Industrial consumers were offered Rs22.98 per unit under the package introduced on December 10 last year, far below the Rs32 average. A team from the Power Division, headed by Mehfooz Bhatti, cautioned that the back-dated adjustment from June 9, which wider industrial consumers have sought, must first be examined legally. Mr Bhatti said the package followed almost a year of work on industry demand, yet nobody could have foreseen a war that changed economic fundamentals.

Industrial representatives and Nepra members questioned why the government had not sought a review after the mandatory six-month period, or calculated the latest average marginal cost. Rehan Javed said the package rate stayed frozen at Rs22.98, while the average cost was Rs34.26 per unit, so other consumers paid about Rs11.28 per unit. Javed and Amir Shaikh urged suspension of the package and its readjustments from June 9.