K-Electric to collect additional Rs3.65/kWh from consumers

KARACHI: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has notified fuel cost adjustment (FCA) in K-Electric’s consumer tariff for six months, starting January to June 2021, which would increase the electricity rates by a net Rs3.65/kWh, the regulatory authority noted in its determination.

However, to facilitate consumers the authority has advised the power utility to collect the amount in three months.

Nepra has allowed K-Electric to collect an additional Rs1.25/kWh on the bills of January, which would be collected with the August bills; however, the net effect in August would be Rs1.1, as a negative FCA of 15 paisas for June will also be adjusted in the August bills.

The net addition in September bills would be Rs1.55 as a positive FCA of Rs2.09/kWh on the bills of February, and a negative adjustment of Rs0.549/kWh would be collected with the September bills. Similarly, a net of Re1 will be added in the October bills.

These adjustments are applicable to all the consumer categories except lifeline and domestic consumers, consuming up to 300 units and the agriculture consumers of K-Electric.

It is; hereby, clarified that the negative adjustment on account of monthly FCA is also applicable to the domestic consumers having Time of Use (ToU) meters irrespective of their consumption level.

“[The] authority is also cognizant of the fact that the period for which the FCAs are being allowed, i.e., January 2021 to June 2021, had already lapsed and variations on account of fuel cost have not yet been recovered/passed on to the consumers.

The authority believes that any such variations need to be passed on to the consumers in a timely manner to ensure financial viability of the company, which otherwise would result in piling up of the legitimate costs and may impact the financial viability of the company.

However, at the same time, the authority, in the interest of the consumers, needs to ensure that the consumers’ are not overburdened by passing on the allowed costs in one go,” Nepra noted in its determination.

The authority has also assessed a decrease of Rs0.193/kwh in the applicable tariff for XW-DISCOs on account of variations in the fuel charges for June 2021.

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