Nepra imposes fixed charges of Rs200-1,000 a month on domestic consumers from July 1

ISLAMABAD: Nepra has introduced a new electricity tariff design by imposing from July 1, 2024, fixed charges of Rs200-1,000 a month in the electricity bills of five residential consumers’ categories depending upon the consumption of units a month.

Nepra also increased the same by up to 300 percent for commercial and up to 355 percent for industrial consumers. This would help Discos to increase earning through fixed charges.

The domestic consumers using 301-400 units a month will pay from July 1, 2024, the fixed charges of Rs200 per month and those using 401-500 will pay Rs400, and the end electricity consumers consuming 501-600 are to pay Rs600. The residential consumers who use the 601-700 units will pay Rs800 a month and those who use above 700 units will pay fixed charges of Rs1,000 a month. The residential consumers using the ToU (time of use) meter will also pay Rs1,000 fixed charges a month.

Commercial consumers having load less than 5kW will also pay Rs1,000 a month as fixed charges. However, those commercial users of electricity having load of 5kW and above will pay now Rs2,000 from the existing Rs500, showing an increase of 300 percent.

Industrial consumers who fall in B1 category using up to 25kW under ToU metering will pay Rs1,000. However, consumers of B2 category using up to 500kW will witness an increase in fixed charges of 300 percent as they will now pay Rs2,000 instead of existing Rs500 a month fixed charges. The B3 category industrial consumers using 5,000kW will pay fixed charges with an increase of 335 percent to Rs2,000 from Rs460 a month. The B4 category consumers using all loads will also experience the 355pc increase in fixed charges as now they will pay Rs2,000 a month from the existing Rs440.

At present, the total cost of electricity unit comprises 72 percent fixed charges and 28 percent variable charges. Still, on the revenue side, the fixed charges stand at just 2 percent and variable charges stand at 98 percent. The relevant authorities, the officials said, have found a mismatch in the electricity tariff between cost and revenue structure.

However, the government will submit the petition with Nepra soon, seeking uniform tariff for FY25 after the electric power regulator has determined the increase base tariff for FY25 at Rs5.72 per unit. In the petition, the government will decide about the increase in fixed charges proposed by Nepra.

With the increase in base tariff, the power sector which is run by the government will reap from the electricity consumers the revenue of over Rs3.763 trillion in FY25. For the outgoing FY24, the increase in base tariff was notified at Rs4.96 per unit which is why the base tariff was set at Rs29.78 per unit. Now the new base tariff for FY25 will increase to Rs35.50 per unit.