Islamabad:
The Federal Government plans to impose additional surcharges to electricity consumers by amending the Law of the National Authority for Electric Power Regulation (NEPRA), a measure that would allow it to unilaterally increase electricity bills, sources said Wednesday.
According to official sources, the amendment proposed to the Nepra Law will train the Government to exceed the current limit of 10% of electricity surcharges, paving the way for greater positions in consumer invoices.
The sources said that the government was preparing to eliminate the existing limit of 10% in the surcharges collected through energy invoices, and the new legal framework granted it a broader authority to determine the tariff increases case by case and for specific durations.
A proposal is also being considered to charge consumers an additional 33.23 per unit as surcharge. However, a final decision on the increase has not yet been made, the sources clarified.
In the past, the surcharges collected from the electricity invoices were mainly used to pay interest on the growing circular debt. The government now aims to eliminate the debt completely by borrowing 1,275 billion commercial banks.
