The Council of Common Interests (CCI) on Tuesday approved to put an end to the sovereignty of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) pertaining to the determination of electricity tariff for end consumers.
According to a statement issued by Prime Minister Office Press Wing, the CCI approved amendments in the ‘Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997’.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Tuesday chaired 31st meeting of CCI, which was attended by chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The meeting discussed 12-point agenda and took up summaries/proposals of provincial governments of Balochistan, Sindh, and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa as well as of various ministries including the Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC), water and power, petroleum and natural resources, cabinet and finance divisions for discussion and necessary approvals.
Inter-Provincial Coordination Division secretary briefed the meeting regarding implementation status of decisions taken in the last CCI meeting held on December 16, 2016.
Sources privy to the development informed Pakistan Today that the approved amendments in the NEPRA Act will now be tabled in the National Assembly for necessary approval. They said CCI has approved to withdraw the powers of NEPRA pertaining to the determination of end consumer tariff of the electricity and handed over the authority to the Power Ministry. Also, approval to implementation on NEPRA Act, powers to prepare rules pertaining to tariff and licensing have been given to the Water & Power Ministry by CCI. With effect to CCI approval to amendments in the act, collection of funds from power consumers for development projects, tariff for Nandipur Power Plant and other power projects, implementation of all orders of federal government by the NEPRA etc have been made, sources said.
The sources also said that amendments in NEPRA Act have been presented in CCI without getting NEPRA’s opinion on the matter, while NEPRA Vice-Chairman Saifullah Chattha was present in the meeting but he did not utter a single word over a practical end to the sovereignty of power sector regulator (NEPRA)
It is also learnt that after the approval of CCI, federal government will be authorized to collect funds from the power consumers for electricity development projects of the country. The government will devise a five year national electricity plan. And, NEPRA will now seek directions from the Power Ministry for power tariff determination with effect to the CCI approval to the amendments in the act. They said Punjab CM Shehbaz Sharif and Sindh CM Syed Murad Ali Shah have criticized NEPRA and declared it (NEPRA) responsible of the destruction of entire power sector of the country. They said CM Shahbaz Sharif told the meeting that he has set solar power tariff at 6 cents but NEPRA was hurdle in this regard.
Earlier, the prime minister, Punjab chief minister and federal minister for water and power were annoyed with NEPRA over various issues pertaining to tariff determinations and not lowering transmission and distribution losses for each power distributing company (DISCOs) etc. They said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government so far remained all out to get CCI approval over the amendments in NEPRA Act mainly to make it mandatory for the NEPRA to implement government instructions.