PM orders revision of electricity bills within 24hrs adjusting FAC relief

August 26, 2022 (MLN): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday directed the power distribution companies to revise the electricity bills of up to 200 consumed units within 24 hours adjusting the relief under the fuel adjustment charge (FAC) announced by the government.

While chairing a high-level meeting to address the issues faced by the power consumers, he also constituted a committee on the matter.

He also instructed that the staffers of the distribution companies should work round the clock to ensure the revision of electricity bills.

The prime minister said that the banks should also be directed to remain open in the coming days to enable the consumers to pay their revised electricity bills.

During the meeting, he was apprised that the implementation of the relief package announced by the prime minister was being ensured. The electricity bills of around 16.6 million were being corrected to provide them relief under fuel price adjustment.

To note, KE, in a press statement, issued on Thursday said, "Following the notification released by the Ministry of Energy, Government of Pakistan (GoP) about the modification of the June Fuel Charges Adjustment (FCA), K-Electric will facilitate those Non-Time-of-Use (Non-ToU), residential consumers, with revised electricity bills for the month of August who have electricity consumption of equal to or less than 200 units."

The revised bills will be available from 26 August onwards and can be collected from KE’s operational customer centers across the city. Agricultural customers in KE territory are also eligible under the Government’s FCA relief, it added. 

XWDISCOs and K-Electric are directed to implement the following with immediate effect:

a) Non-ToU Domestic (Protected) consumers having ≤ 200 units of consumption would only pay Rs. 3.8972/Unit in August 2022 billing month.
b) Non-ToU Domestic (Non-Protected) consumers having ≤ 200 units consumption and Private Agriculture consumers shall not pay any FCA in August 2022 billing month.”

For the convenience of pertinent consumers, the bill due date for August bills has also been extended to 30 August by the power utility. Furthermore, the customer care centers of K-Electric will remain open for extended hours this week. The extended timings for Friday and Saturday are till 08.00 pm, while on Sunday, these centers will be open to facilitate customers till 05:00 pm, the statement further noted. 

To recall, NEPRA on August 23, 2022, announced to conduct a public hearing on 31 August over the petition submitted by K-Electric on account of Fuel Charges Adjustments (FCA) for July 2022 and Quarterly Adjustments for April to June 2022.

For the month of July, K-Electric has filed a petition for a negative FCA at the rate of PKR 3.47/KWh.

On the other hand, KE had requested an increase of PKR 14.533 / kWh rupees on account of Quarterly Adjustments. According to the spokesperson of the power utility, the Impact of quarterly adjustments is usually not passed to consumers under the uniform tariff policy applicable across the country. 

However, the final decision rests with the Federal Ministry of Energy and NEPRA.

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