ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has approved salary increases, performance-based increments and bonuses for employees of the Central Power Purchasing Agency Guarantee Limited (CPPA-G) under its market operation fee determination for the fiscal year 2025-26.
Based on the ruling by the regulator, the employees of CPPA-G would have their salaries increased by 4.49 percent to cater for the rise in inflation, plus 6 percent performance increments that translate into 10.49 percent overall.
NEPRA approved a budget of Rs1.58 billion for salaries of the employees and an additional Rs249 million for incentives. However, the regulator has cut back on the proposed bonus to be paid by the company. Instead of the proposed budget of Rs199 million, NEPRA only allocated Rs55.6 million, which is equal to one basic salary.
Moreover, the recruitment proposals were partially granted, since it was allowed to hire 26 employees with a Rs109.7 million budget, whereas all future hiring would require NEPRA approval separately.
Likewise, the budget request for several expenses was either cut back or rejected. A staff training budget of Rs85 million was granted but the proposed hiring of recruitment firms, consultants, and compensation survey consultants was rejected.
It further lowered administrative costs from Rs316 million proposed to Rs271.1 million. The cost reductions include costs relating to communication, audit fees, and insurance. Moreover, it decreased the budgeted amount for information technology services and vehicle maintenance from Rs241 million to Rs137 million.
In making its ruling, NEPRA pointed out the necessity of financial prudence and argued that in light of the problems faced by the power industry, there would be no need to increase costs at the expense of electricity customers.
NEPRA noted that although some expenditures related to the employees were necessary, it had reviewed all the budget requests made by the company very critically.
