Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak said on Tuesday that if the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) resolved the issue of net hydel profit through tariff regime then there was no need to approach the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to resolve the issue.
He was talking to media after the NEPRA’s hearing of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) petition to increase the hydel power tariff from Rs 1.74 per unit to Rs 3.85 per unit for the current financial year.
“We want payment of net hydel profit (NHP) on the basis of AGN Kazi formula and if NEPRA upholds it, all our concerns will be addressed. There will be no need left to approach the CCI,” Khattak added.
The provincial government demands clearance of arrears of Rs 44 billion and Rs 57 billion mark up on the NHP along with the uncapping of NHP from Rs 6 billion per annum agreed in 1991.
Earlier, NEPRA Chairman Tariq Saddozai chaired the NEPRA bench that included all the provincial members. WAPDA has sought an increase of Rs 2.11 per unit to meet its revenue requirements of Rs 122 billion for paying net hydel profit (NHP) of Rs 35 billion to the provinces.
Making his arguments on the massive increase in hydel tariff, Member Finance WAPDA Anwar-ul-Haq said the federal government had directed them (WAPDA) to seek an increase of Rs 1.10 per unit in the tariff under NHP to pay the provinces.
The NEPRA chairman said that the WAPDA petition had no convincing arguments for seeking increase in tariff and they had included payment of NHP to Azad Jammu and Kashmir government which was outside the jurisdiction of NEPRA.
Lawyer of KPK government Shumail Ahmad Butt said that WAPDA was delaying release of NHP to provinces. He said the KPK government was temporarily agreeing to the WAPDA petition as the issue of outstanding dues, mark up on withheld amount and uncapping of NHP required taking the matter to the CCI.
On this, Member NEPRA KPK Himayat Ullah Khan said if the provincial government wanted to raise the matter in CCI then NEPRA could not decide the issue. However, the KPK chief secretary clarified that if NHP issue was resolved by the NEPRA then there was no need to raise the issue at CCI.
The NEPRA chairman directed all the parties to file their comments within 10 days after which the decision on the petition would be made by the authority.