KCCI slams revised K-Electric tariff

KARACHI: The president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) said on Wednesday that the government has imposed another slab on K-Electric consumers by silently bifurcating the previous slab of 100-300 units per month into two slabs; 100-200 units per month and 201-300 units per month.
A press release from the KCCI reported Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra as saying that this had been done with the intention of applying the upward revised tariffs to those consumers who consume more than 200 units a month.
Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra said in his statement that 65 percent of K-Electric consumers were those who fall in the category of 100-300 units per month, and with the addition of another slab, consumers of more than 200 units per month have been subjected to 26 percent increase in tariff from Rs8.11 to Rs10.20.
He recalled that, at a public hearing meeting held by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), the Advisor of the KCCI’s Sub-Committee for Public Sector Utilities, Power and Gas, Dr Qazi Ahmed Kamal, had already expressed deep concern over the controversial bifurcation and enhancement of the tariff on usage of 201 units per month.
Referring to KE’s billing criteria, which included previous slab benefits for 201 unit users, Vohra stated that billing for this slab could now be calculated without giving the benefits of previous slabs. He accused the government of paving way for KE to enhance profitability and at the same time support the losses and inefficiencies of power generation units. The KCCI “totally rejects this arbitrary and illegal route adopted by the government,” he added.
Vohra said even if it were based on subsidy withdrawal and did not require a hearing, the factual position should have been publicised.
He said the ECC has illegally stopped giving subsidy benefits to users of under-200 units per month, trespassing on provincial autonomy and bypassing the CCI mandate, he said. He also criticised the government for the across-the-board raise in gas tariffs, which was an essence of bad governance, mismanagement, corruption and complete submission to IMF dictates.
He said that the decision to raise gas prices for industrial consumption and captive power plants would have a devastating impact on the country’s export performance since Pakistani exporters would lose competitiveness due to the high cost of doing business. The increase in gas rate for captive power plants will gradually reach KE’s per unit cost, directly affecting exporters’ calculations, he added.
He also noted that although the price of crude oil has gone down by 60 percent but less than 30 percent of the benefit has been passed on to consumers.
POL prices would have been somewhere around Rs50 per litre if the benefits of declining international oil prices were fully passed on to consumers, according to him.
Vohra said with taxes on oil having been raised to the level of 45 percent, the government was the sole beneficiary of the dropping international oil prices.