Bahria Town massively increases electricity rates for twin city residents

RAWALPINDI: Bahria Town Rawalpindi increased electricity prices for its consumers on Thursday for adjustment in the Bulk Purchase Rate.

According to the details, Bahria Town Rawalpindi has put the entire burden on the residents, who have already purchased electricity at premium rates. BTR announced an increase of Rs 4 per unit for domestic and Rs 7 for commercial consumers.

Apart from this, Miscellaneous charges which are part of the Maintenance Bill are also being shifted to the electricity bill without any increase.

In a circular, Bahria Town’s billing department said that with the increase in the electricity price sold by IESCO to Bahria Town in January 2019, the Bahria Billing Department started losing crores of rupees per month.

“Given this situation, Bahria Town immediately applied for a revision in the electricity prices in NEPRA. Despite several hearings and meetings on this petition, a final decision could not be taken,” it added.

Moreover, the circular stated, “In April 2023, because of all the circumstances, the Nepra authority issued orders to the Islamabad Electric Supply Corporation (IESCO) to bring the billing department of Bahria Town under its control so that the consumers of the private housing society could also get electricity per unit at the IESCO rate.”

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Bahria Town agreed to these orders, but IESCO refused to comply with these orders, Bahria Town’s Billing Department said.

“Meanwhile, Bahria Town’s request for a new distribution license from 2022 is still pending in NEPRA. After the increase in the IESCO rate last year, Bahria Town requested NEPRA on September 2023 that until the New Bulk Purchase Tariff for Bahria Town is fixed, a temporary relief of Rs 12 should be provided in the Bulk Purchase Rate to Bahria Town so that BTR bills their customers as per the IESCO rate. However, NEPRA has not yet issued any decision on this,” it said

Therefore, to pay the IESCO bill, Bahria Town has to increase the price of electricity sold to consumers in the consumer Sales Rate, which was reported to NEPRA in March 2024.

In addition, the statement said, “Consumers’ domestic bill for April 2024 is being increased by Rs 4 as a tariff adjustment and the commercial bill by Rs 7. Apart from this, Miscellaneous charges which are part of the Maintenance Bill are also being shifted to the electricity bill without any increase.”