The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) announced on Friday that K-Electric’s prices would go down because of September’s fuel charges adjustment (FCA). This is a big relief for the people of Karachi.
Under the FCA, a system and K-Electric’s that changes the price of electricity when fuel prices change, the power regulator said that November bills should show an Rs5.1261 per kWh change. This, too, will only be true for one month.
On October 25, NEPRA held a hearing on KE’s fuel adjustment application. KE had asked for a negative FCA of Rs4.622 per kWh.
But after hearing the arguments and estimates, the power regulator agreed to a negative FCA of Rs5.1261 per kWh.
In a statement, the NEPRA told all KE to show the change on the November bills of their customers.
This will be true for all types of consumers except:
- Lifelines consumers
- Consumers in their own country who buy up to 300 units
- Charging stations for electric cars used by the agriculture industry
- Also, it was made clear that the negative adjustment because of the monthly FCA applies to all domestic consumers with Time of Use (ToU) meters, no matter how much electricity they use.
The drop of Rs5.12 will cost consumers over Rs8.6 billion, when GST is added in.
“When figuring out the fuel adjustment charges, the relevant K-Electric shall keep in mind and strictly follow the orders of the courts, regardless of this order,” the notice said.
The power regulator said earlier this week that the price of electricity for the ex-Wapda distribution companies (XWDISCOs) would go up by Rs0.08 per unit because of FCA in September 2022.
With GST taken into account, the Rs0.08 increase will cost consumers more than Rs1 billion.
