4th QTA: Nepra allows Discos, KE to charge Rs3.28/unit extra for six months

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) Friday allowed state-run power distribution companies (Discos) and privatized K-Electric to collect an additional Rs3.28/unit on account of the fourth quarterly (April-June 2023) tariff adjustments in the next six months, starting from October 2023.

Every month from October 2023 to March 2024, there will be an extra Rs3.28/unit additional charge in the name of 4th quarterly adjustments for FY23. This increase has been made 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.

All Discos and K-Electric will collect nearly Rs183 billion (including GST) from power in these six months. Excluding GST, the Discos collection stands at Rs135.58 billion and the K-Electric will charge up to Rs20 billion.

Interestingly, of this collection (without GST), over Rs130 billion is for paying capacity charges to Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

Here it is pertinent to mention that no quarterly adjustments would be passed on to Bl, B2, B3 and B4 industrial consumers to the extent of incremental sales till the continuation of the package, in line with the Authority’s decision of December 01, 2020.

It is to be noted that on August 24, 2023, Nepra had held a public hearing on the DISCOs petition. Representative of the Ministry of Energy during the hearing submitted that the proposed quarterly adjustment may be recovered from consumers in a period of six months (Oct 2023 to March 2024) in order to minimize the impact on consumers.

The impact as per the Ministry, would be around Rs3.55/unit instead of Rs6.20/unit, if passed on to consumers in a period of six months instead of three months.