Power Division has proposed revision in National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) FCA decision/ notification by way of policy guidelines to recover the pending amount of Rs52 billion from electricity consumers and Rs 10.34 billion as an additional supplementary grant to cover waiver of electricity bills.
Power Division in its summary to the ECC has explained that Fuel Charges Adjustments (FCA) are determined by Nepra as per section 31(7) of the Nepra Act on monthly basis. As per the existing tariff methodology, Power Purchase Price billed to consumers is subject to adjustment on account of variation in fuel cost on monthly basis and uniformly reflected in the consumer’s monthly bill as FCA with a lag of two months.
Pursuant to this, Nepra has determined the FCAs of Rs. 9.8972/unit and Rs. 4.3435/unit for the months of Jun-22 and Jul-22, respectively, to be charged in the billing months of Aug-22 and Sep 22, respectively, for Discos
For K-Electric consumers, Nepra has determined Rs 9.8972 per unit of FCA to be charged in the Aug-22 billing cycle (Rs. 6.8858/unit of May -22 and Rs. 3.0114/unit of June-22) and Rs 3.9738 per unit FCA to be charged in Sep-22 billing cycle (Rs. 8.0909 unit of Jun-22 and Rs. 4.1171/ unit of Jul-22). As an unfortunate coincidence consumers were hit by Rs 9.8972 per unit of FCA plus Rs7 per unit of rebasing simultaneously in August billing. Due to the above adjustments, consumer tariffs increased significantly for the months of August and September 2022.
As the country was also hit by the devastating floods during the months of August and September 22, to provide relief to consumers across the country, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, after a series of meetings held on 22, 23rd August 2022, 1st and 13th September 2022, directed to stagger the recovery of June and July FCAs as per following schedule: (i) non-ToU Domestic (Protected) consumers having 200 unit’s consumption would only pay Rs. 3.8972/unit FCA in August 2022 billing month.
The remaining FCA of Rs.6/unit (out of a total Rs. 9.8972/Unit) would be recovered by applying Rs. 1/ unit FCA in six months (Oct-22 to Mar-23)+ADs-(ii) non-ToU domestic (Protected) consumers having 300 units of consumption and private agriculture consumers, would not pay any FCA in the August 2022 billing month.
FCA of Rs. 9.8972/unit would be recovered by applying Rs. 1.65/unit FCA in six months (Oct-22 to Mar-23)+ADs- (iii) non-ToU Domestic consumers, having 300 unit’s consumption during the month of July 2022, would not pay any FCA in September 2022 billing month. FCA of Rs. 4.3435/unit would be recovered by applying Rs. 0.72/ unit FCA in six months (Oct+-22 to Mar-23) +ADs-( iv) non-ToU domestic consumers of K-Electric consuming 300 units during the month of July 2022, would not pay any FCA in September 2022 billing month.
FCA of Rs. 3.9738/ unit (after passing on the negative FCA of (4.1171) unit for the month of Jul-22 to consumers of 300 units as well) would be recovered by applying Rs. 0.66/unit FCA in six months (Oct-22 to Mar-23). In flood-affected areas, electricity bills for the month of September 2022 would be deferred for commercial consumers till the next billing cycle+ADs- (v) in flood-affected areas electricity bills for the months of August and September 2022 would be waived off for non-ToU domestic consumers up to 300 units. This would have a subsidy requirement of Rs. 10.34 billion. As such, Power Division has not been able to bill and recover the FCAs applicable for the month of Aug and Sept 2022.
