Govt asks NEPRA to hike power price

Islamabad: The Ministry of Energy submitted a request to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to increase the electricity cost to fulfil International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) ‘do more’ demand through surcharge from the running year.

The government has stated in the application that for the current financial year, the surcharge per unit should be increased by Rs3.23 per unit.

Whereas earlier on March 6 it was decided to apply this surcharge for up to Rs2.43 paisa per unit, but this does not meet the financial requirements.

According to the application a surcharge of Rs0.43 per unit for domestic and agricultural consumers who use 300 units from July to October 300, and a surcharge of Rs3.23 on domestic and agricultural consumers from November to June.

NEPRA official said that the surcharge increase would be applicable on all consumers of the country including domestic, agriculture and commercial.

The request for surcharge on electricity consumers will be heard on March 16.