The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has requested the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to allow the company to raise the power tariff by Rs 1.544 per kilowatt hour (kWh). Through petition No CMF/NEPRA/071/679, dated April 22, 2011, the KESC seeks NEPRA to approve the request according to the monthly fuel surcharge adjustment as a consequence of variation in fuel and power purchase price for March 2011.
The KESC seeks adjustment of Rs 0.504/kWh against the fuel price variation and Rs 1.040/kWh in terms of power purchase price variation, making the total demand of power tariff to be Rs 1.544/kWh. To determine the fuel adjustment demand, NEPRA has also organised a public hearing in the city on May 16, inviting the interveners to discuss the petition if they have any reservations. Some interveners who would attend the hearing said that the authority might favour the company as it has done in various hearings in the past because despite severe criticism and objections, the company’s demands are accepted by the authority most of the time.
Most petitions filed by the KESC are heard by the authority without any representation from Karachi, and the demands are subsequently accepted, the interveners claimed. Sources said that to ensure a transparent system of determining the tariff of distribution companies and the KESC, NEPRA should be reconstituted and have representation from consumers and the corporate sector, as well as have a retired judge and an energy expert as its members.
Expressing reservations about the current practice of allowing power generation companies to include their line losses and power theft damages in the power tariff and fuel adjustment surcharge, sources said that such practices should be revised. By disclosing that its transmission and distribution losses have reduced to around 30 percent from 34 percent, the KESC has been benefiting from these tactics for obtaining maximum tariff, the sources added.
Despite the fact that the KESC is serving 2.2 million customers who pays billions of rupees as power tariff, only eight or fewer representatives of different organisations participate in the hearings. Power load shedding has caused the citizens to spend huge amounts of money on running generators and other alternate power sources so they could beat the heat, but increasing the power tariff is yet another burden on them in addition to being supplied intermittent electricity.
