NEPRA allows Rs3.6 increase per unit to ex-Wapda Discos

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Friday allowed ex-WAPDA Distribution Companies (XWDiscos) to recover Rs 97 billion from power consumers on account of monthly Fuel Charges and quarterly adjustments.

The regulator has allowed an increase of Rs 3.6444/unit on account of quarterly adjustments for the last quarter (April to June) of 2021-22, while the tariff has increased by Rs 0.1918/unit on account of Fuel Charges Adjustments (FCA) for the month of August.

The Regulator issued its decision However, according the NEPRA decision the increase on account of quarterly adjustments will not increase the consumers bills as the existing GoP notified Schedule of Tariff (SoT) will be maintained during the 1st quarter of 2022-23.

Initially XWDiscos had sought NEPRA’s approval for the transfer of Rs 94bn burden on the electricity consumers on account of quarterly adjustments for the 4th quarter (April to June) of 2021-22, but later it had upward revised the requested amount to Rs 95.148bn.

However the regulator has allowed an increase of Rs.93.957bn on account of variation in Capacity charges, Variable O&M, additional recovery on Incremental sales, Use of System Charges, Market Operator Fee and FCA impact on T&D losses for the 4th quarter of FY 2021-22.

The amount will be recovered from the power consumers within next four months starting from October 2022 till January 2023.

Ministry of Energy has requested NEPRA “To apply the Quarterly adjustments for Quarter 4 of FY 2022 in four months period from October to January 2023, by maintaining the existing GoP notified Schedule of Tariff (SoT) for Q-4 FY 20, Q-1,2 &3 FY 21 and Q-2 FY22 expiring in September 2022.

Considering the request of the Ministry of Energy, the Authority noted that as per the earlier practice, the recovery of Quarterly adjustment from consumers was being made in three months period, in order to ensure timely recovery of allowed cost. However, since the MoE itself has requested to allow recovery of the 4th Quarterly adjustment in a period of four months, therefore, the Authority has decided to accept this request of the MoE.

Similarly, the Authority has also decided to accept the request of the MoE to maintain the existing GoP notified Schedule of Tariff (SoT) i.e. for the 4th Quarter of FY 20, lc, 2” & 3rd Quarter of FY 21 and 2nd Quarter of FY 22, expiring in September 2022, for the purpose of recovery of 4th quarterly adjustment of FY 202 1-22. This is being done in the interest of the consumer as the instant determined 4th Quarterly adjustment will only replace the existing applicable Quarterly adjustment rates and there will be no additional burden on the consumers.

The decision will allow XWDiscos to transfer the burden of Rs 3.6442/unit to power consumers, but since it will replace the existing quarterly adjustment of Rs 3.39/unit already being billed to the consumers and the duration of its collection has been increased from three to four months period, therefore it will have no impact on the billing of the consumers.

Meanwhile National Electric Power Regulatory Authority also notified an increase of Re 0.1918/unit in power tariff for the ex-WAPDA Discos (XWDiscos) on account of FCA for the month of August 2022. Due to the increase, there will be an additional burden of more than Rs 2.6bn on the Discos consumers.The increase will be charged from the consumers in their October bills.