Government proposes reduction in basic electricity tariff

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to reduce the basic electricity tariff and change the fixed charges. According to media reports, under the change under consideration by the government, it has been proposed to make electricity cheaper for domestic consumers consuming more than 300 and 700 units of electricity per month, while fixed charges have been proposed to be applied to both protected and non-protected types of consumers.

Earlier, fixed charges were imposed only on non-protected consumers consuming more than 300 units of electricity, but now there is a proposal to impose fixed charges on domestic consumers consuming up to 300 units of electricity per month, under which it has been proposed to impose fixed charges of Rs. 200 on protected domestic consumers consuming 100 units of electricity per month, and Rs. 300 on protected consumers consuming 200 units per month.

It has been reported that fixed charges of Rs 275 have been proposed for non-protected consumers consuming up to 100 units of electricity per month, Rs 300 for those consuming up to 200 units, and Rs 350 for non-protected consumers consuming up to 300 units of electricity per month. Consideration is being given to increasing the fixed charges from Rs 200 to Rs 400 for non-protected consumers consuming up to 400 units of electricity per month.

It has been learned that for non-protected consumers using 500 units per month, the fixed charges have been proposed to be increased from Rs 400 to Rs 500 and for those using 600 units per month, the fixed charges have been proposed to be increased from Rs 600 to Rs 675. In addition, for those using up to 700 units of electricity per month, the fixed charges have been reduced from Rs 800 to Rs 675. For those using more than 700 units of electricity per month, the fixed charges have been reduced by Rs 325 and then increased to Rs 675.

It is being told that under the proposal, a reduction of Rs 1.53 per unit tariff has been proposed for domestic consumers for monthly electricity consumption of 400 units, Rs 1.25 per unit for monthly electricity consumption of up to 500 units, Rs 1.40 per unit for monthly electricity consumption of up to 600 units, Rs 91 per unit for monthly electricity consumption of 700 units, while a reduction of 49 per unit has been proposed for consumers consuming more than 700 units of electricity per month.

It has also been learned that a reduction of Rs 1.15 per unit in the electricity tariff for commercial consumers of 5 kW and above load is also included, and a reduction of Rs 5 per unit in the electricity tariff for the industrial sector has been proposed. After the approval of the federal cabinet, an application in this regard has been submitted to NEPRA, on which NEPRA will hear the request of the Power Division on February 10.