Consumers received hiked bills due to fuel surcharge
Following the announcement of the relief package by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan on Wednesday explained that only the households that consume electricity up to 200 units will be exempt from fuel charges adjustment.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi, the power min revealed that 17 million people are being provided relief amounting to Rs22 billion on account of the FCA.
The power minister said that work is underway to restructure the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority. “The authority’s main task is to determine the tariff, which is facing delays,” he said, adding that if the tariffs are announced timely consumers will not pay the surcharge amount.
“Additional amounts paid by the power consumers on account of June’s FCA was because of “Azaab-e-Imrani (the calamity of Imran)”, he said, terming PTI chief Imran Khan’s claims regarding excessive power capacity as “incorrect”.
The power minister said that the coalition government is trying its best to provide cheap electricity to the inflation-weary consumers.
Shedding light on future plans, Dastgir said that the coalition government aims to complete the projects of Thar coal, including the power generation project which is in collaboration with Shanghai Electric.
The power minister said that agricultural electricity users would also be exempted from the charges. “FAC has been eliminated for 17 million users, including farmers and low-income Pakistanis,” Dastgir said.
The minister said that the relief package was designed keeping in mind the agreement with the International Monetary Fund. Dastgir said consumers would note that the FAC for September’s bill would be considerably lower.
Speaking on other relief measures, Dastgir reiterated that the fixed tax on traders would be removed and the old system would be reverted to, with some modifications from October.
