The sources say that electricity price is being increased to get IMF programme.
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/ Pakistan Point News- May 30th, 2022) The government authorities to increase electricity price up to Rs7-7.50 to ensure restoration of the IMF programme.
The raise is expected to be implemented from July 1, 2022.
According to official sources, the IMF has been asking for a raise in the electricity base rate for 2022-23 for a long time, as new power plants and transmission and distribution projects have been added to the national grid.
The latest reports said that the current average base tariff is Rs16.64 per unit, which is likely to increase by Rs7 to Rs7.50 per unit to Rs24.14 per unit.
Federal Minister for Power Division Khurram Dastgir Khan said he couldn't say how much increase would be made in the base rate.
He said they had to decide it yet while senior officials from the ministry and the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) were involved.
After the process for rebassing price, a new base tariff would be decided and implemented on July 1, 2022, following the announcement of the budget.
Some of the new projects, including an 878-km-long 660kV high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line, two nuclear power plants (k-2 and k-3), China Hub power plant, Engro power plant, and RLNG-based power plant at Trimmu, Jhang, Punjab, and others, are now connected to the national grid.
The base tariff is the average cost of energy, which includes the costs of power plants, transmission and distribution, as well as fuel and operations and maintenance.
It included power plant capacity payments which now range between Rs800 and Rs850 billion per year and are paid by customers in the tariff, with capacity payments likely to rise to Rs1.4 trillion per year in the next budgetary year 2022-23.
