Power tariff set to rise again by October

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government is thinking of raising the power tariff once again, and the decision is likely to be finalised in the upcoming meeting of the Council of Common Interest today (Tuesday), Pakistan Today learnt through a reliable source on Monday.
This time the proposal that is under review is raising the electricity tariff to up to Rs 14 per unit for domestic consumers and Rs 19 per unit for industrial consumers. The sources said in the recent negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Pakistani side – led by Minister Finance Ishaq Dar – had assured the visiting delegates that the government would withdraw all subsidies given in account of electricity.
In wake of the talks, the PML-N government has decided to raise the power tariff for domestic as well as commercial consumers from October. Under the plan, initially, the power tariff for the domestic consumer would be raised from Rs 5.79 to Rs 14. However, domestic users consuming less than 300 units of electricity are likely to be exempted.
On the other hand, the electricity price per unit for industrial consumers is expected to be raised from the current Rs 8.22 per unit to Rs 19 per unit.
The reviewed proposal would be floated in the session of the Council of Common Interest today amid seeking approval for the proposal from the provinces, especially Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The federal government will have a hard time convincing the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Sindh governments, as resistance is expected from the two provinces where the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan People’s Party are in power. During the meeting, the issue of circular debt worth Rs 23 billion would also be discussed that would be finalised by the CCI.
The country is currently facing a short fall of 3,500 megawatts of electricity as the demand is around 16,500MW.
Pakistan is receiving 5,400MW of electricity from its hydro power resources, and 1,850MW from thermal power resources while independent power producers are contributing 6,200MW to the national grid.
Meanwhile, Dar, the finance minister has claimed that payments worth Rs 480 billion have been made by the government in account of circular debt, following which power generation is expected to rise by 1,700MW in the coming days.
The PML-N government released payments of Rs 322 billion in account of circular debt in June, while Rs 158 billion has been recently released. The decision regarding the rest of the payments that are worth Rs 23 billion would be finalised after the CCI meeting today.