On account of monthly Fuel Cost Adjustments (FCA), the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) raised the cost per unit of power for Karachi residents by Rs1.29.
It held a public hearing at its headquarters on Karachi Electric’s (KE) request to hike the power tariff under the FCA by Rs3.45 per unit for February. Chairman Tauseef H. Farooqi chaired the public meeting, which was also attended by officials Rafiq Ahmed Sheikh and Engineer Maqsood Anwar Khan.
According to the officials, KE’s monthly FCA is decided at Rs1.29 per unit based on data analysis.
The Chairman inquired about Karachi’s load-shedding status and if KE has a gas procurement deal with the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) to address the fuel crisis.
Load management is only done on feeders with a low recovery rate, according to the latter’s officials, and consumers only have to experience one to one-and-a-half hours of load shedding every day.
Chairman Farooqui stated that KE’s technology needs to be modernised, and that there should be no load-shedding for bill-paying customers and locations where billing is timely.
He also mentioned that the NEPRA has posted phone numbers on its website for inhabitants of the city to report any forced load-shedding by any power utility.
According to the briefing delivered at the meeting, KE’s customers were charged Rs3.28 per unit in January under the FCA. Similarly, the FCA for February was decided to be Rs1.99 lesser than the January billing.
Muhamad Tanveer, who is a representative of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce (KCCI), denied the FCA, citing that customers are already paying for the January hike and that the FCA should not be transferred to them.
After reviewing the facts, the NEPRA issued a thorough judgment declaring that the FCA is only levied and set for the month in concern and that it is variable with each hearing depending on the fuel costs for that month.
