Electricity tariff for 18m low-usage consumers cut by 56%, NA told

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari said Thursday the power tariffs for 18 million consumers, using less than 200 units, had been reduced by 56 percent since June last year.

Responding to a question during the Question-Hour in the National Assembly on Thursday, he said there had been an overall 20 percent reduction in electricity tariffs for domestic consumers and farmers and a 31 percent reduction for industries.

Leghari said 7,000 MW surplus electricity was available in the country for the next three years. He said the government was planning to provide electricity at Rs21 to Rs22 per unit, and the Ministry of Finance was discussing it with the development partners. There will be no subsidy costs on this, he added.

The minister said the prime minister approved a fuel cost adjustment, due to which the electricity prices for agricultural consumers had reduced by 20 percent. He said the government had signed agreements with the IPPs for Rs3.5 trillion, and this amount had been adjusted. Similarly, he said the benefit of the Petroleum Development Levy had also been passed on to the consumers. He was confident that Pakistan would become a competitive energy supplier in the region next year or in a year and a half.

He said the tariff for industrial consumers had been reduced by 31 percent, due to which the demand of industries had increased. “In Faisalabad alone, the power demand for industries has increased by 35 percent,” he said.

To a supplementary question from Shahida Rahmani, the power minister said there was cross-subsidy, but the government reduced the tariff for the middle class. Prices for consumers from 200 to 300 units have been reduced by 20 percent, and for consumers from 300 to 400 units, the tariff has been reduced by 14 percent. Leghari said loadshedding was being done on high-loss feeders in the K-Electric region.