ISLAMABAD: Consumer representatives on Wednesday protested against a proposed additional quarterly tariff burden of Rs34 billion by power companies, driven by higher capacity charges arising from loadshedding, lower sales and solar penetration, resulting in an estimated tariff impact of around Rs1.35 per unit for three months.
This led industrial consumers at a public hearing called by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to demand an immediate review of the incremental tariff package, which they claimed imposed an additional financial burden of about Rs2 per unit on all consumers.
As most of the major distribution companies (Discos) reported around a 5pc reduction in sales, Nepra member Maqsood Anwar Khan suspected that one of the major reasons was excessive loadshedding, particularly affecting “good consumers”. During his questioning, at least the team representing Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco) confirmed that loadshedding was also happening in low-loss areas with high-paying consumers.
Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) reported that higher capacity charges required its quarterly tariff for the September-November period to increase by about Rs1.83 per unit, while Hazara Electric sought an additional quarterly tariff adjustment (QTA) of about Rs1.65 per unit.
Discos report 5pc drop in sales; industry demands review of incremental package
Mr Khan said he had been questioning since the beginning whether the incremental package — the supply of electricity to industrial consumers at Rs22.98 per unit against an average tariff of around Rs40 per unit — would create problems. He said that, contrary to claims from power companies, solar penetration was helping sustain the country’s energy sector by reducing system losses and lowering imported fuel costs. Otherwise, loadshedding would have been much higher during the regional war, or tariff adjustments would have been higher because of expensive fuel imports.
Nepra member Amina Ahmed said the higher QTA impact on account of April-June consumption period had now become inevitable, but this now necessitated an urgent review of the incremental tariff package.
Naveed Qaiser, the head of Power Division’s tariff team, said a case for review of the incremental package had already been submitted to Nepra but contested that the package had caused any damage, saying the industrial consumption had generally improved.
Representatives of industrial consumers from Karachi Chamber of Commerce, Korangi Association of Trade and Industry and others challenged that slight improvement in industrial consumption was actually because of industrial shift from captive power generation to grid after the government imposed punitive captive levy on natural gas under IMF instructions to curtail power sector circular debt now building in the gas sector.
Mr Qaiser said the power companies had actually sought an additional Rs23bn in QTA, while another Rs14bn was later added by Sukkur Electric on account of bilateral trading from the New Captive Power Plants at Naudero, Dawood, and Shikarpur.
He said the actual additional impact over the quarter would be around Rs17-18bn. Nepra member Ahmed also indicated that Rs14bn demanded by Sepco may not form part of the QTA and would have to be examined separately.
Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2026
