The Water and Power Ministry has increased the electricity tariff by Rs 1.25 per unit. The hike will be applicable with immediate effect. A notification on Wednesday stated that the increase will be applicable across the country, including Karachi. The tariff has been increased to Rs 8.83 per unit and the government is still paying a subsidy of Rs 3.08. With the current hike in power tariff, the government will get Rs 90 billion revenue per year. Lifeline consumers will be excluded from this increase. The announcement comes at a time when people across the country are protesting against prolonged hours of load shedding. Last Thursday, people across Punjab took part in violent protests ransacking public installations and resorting to street crimes against massive load shedding. On Friday, the power minister said that unannounced load shedding would end but there has been no let up in the outages.
