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Tuesday March 18, 2025

KE seeks Nepra’s nod to refund Rs4.84 per unit in April bills

Proposed refund comes after utility charged higher per unit electricity rates in January, 2025

By Our Correspondent
March 13, 2025
A view of the K-Electric head office in Karachi. — K-Electric website/File
A view of the K-Electric head office in Karachi. — K-Electric website/File

ISLAMABAD: K-Electric (KE) has filed a petition with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) seeking approval to refund Rs4.84 per unit to its consumers in April bills.

The proposed refund comes after the utility charged higher per unit electricity rates in January, 2025. Under the monthly fuel charges adjustment (FCA) for January, the company wants to refund approximately Rs4.695 billion to its power consumers.

The regulator has scheduled a public hearing for March 20 to consider the KE request for a provisional negative FCA.

The Karachi-based power distributor has submitted that Rs13.5 billion in fuel cost adjustments for July 2023 to January 2025 remain pending, with Rs5.4 billion already set aside in its November 2024 FCA decision.

The company is urging the regulator to factor in accumulated fuel cost actualisation—including partial load, open cycle, and degradation curves—within the current negative FCA period to prevent future consumer burdens.

Interestingly, this negative adjustment would apply to domestic consumers using up to 300 units per month and agricultural users, as on the request of Power Division, Nepra last Thursday allowed it. This permission was given after previously this category of up to 300 units was excluded since 2015.