The Lahore High Court on Wednesday sought report from NEPRA on a new petition requesting payments of Rs 54 billion to electricity consumers, which had been recovered as fuel adjustment charges in electricity bills.
LHC Justice Ayesha A Malik directed NEPRA to file reply until December 16.
The petitioner’s counsel said Rs 54 billion was recovered through electricity bills. He said NEPRA had later announced to return this amount to the consumers. He requested that NEPRA should be directed to return this money to the consumers within a month.
He submitted that the electricity consumers had been subject to illegal, unlawful and arbitrary prices of electricity. He said the Supreme Court in several judgements had ruled that any amendment apart from collection of taxes was ultra vires of the constitution
He said such an increase had made many people joblessness and economic failure of Pakistan as a nation. He said it was high time to probe the matter by holding a judicial inquiry.
He requested to suspend the operation of the determination/notifications of fuel adjustment surcharge by NEPRA since 2008 to date until a final decision of the instant petitions.
In reply, the LESCO counsel said that different courts, including the Supreme Court, had heard the subject matter. He said the petitioners had admitted to depositing the fuel adjustment surcharge in six installments, adding that filing these petitions against the surcharge was illegal.
