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Aftab Maken
ISLAMABAD: The Power Ministry was not present in a monthly FCA hearing in NEPRA to address the questions raise by the industry representatives and other stakeholders. Even the Authority remained unmoved over the absence of the power ministry from the hearing.
The consumers are set to get a relief of Rs 0.65 per unit on account of fuel adjustment for the month of June 2025.
The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Wednesday conducted a public hearing on the Central Power Purchasing Agency’s (CPPA) request to reduce the monthly fuel charges adjustment (FCA) by 65 paisa per unit for June.
During the public hearing, the private sector has raised questions on the federal government for not fully passing the announced electricity tariff to the industrial and consumers. They also asked why the federal government is also not passing on announced tariff of Rs 1.71 after levying on petroleum products.
Responding to these queries from the private sector, a representative of the power ministry did not reply to them as absent from the public hearing. Other queries from the stakeholders were also not unanswered during the FCA monthly hearing. The authority also mummed over the absence of Power Ministry from the hearing.
A participant also asked the authority that it did not even notify of the federal government of raising the petroleum levy on Petroleum products by passing it on to the electricity consumers by reducing electricity tariffs in the tune of Rs 1.71 per unit.
The industry representative further alleged that the industrial tariff has again reached to Rs 35 per unit and cost of doing business has increased in the country.
Another participant questioned the cheap supply of domestic gas to the Jamshoro power plant by suggesting that the dedicated power supply should be diverted to other power plants more efficient to the said Jamshoro power plant.
To this question, the petition replied that the dedicated gas supply to other efficient power plant like Halmore, Qauid-e-Azam and etc cannot be diverted.
For the raising the base tariff for Baggas Power Plant of Sugar Millers, another participant said that the Baggas is bye-product and then why the said power plants are given special treatment of raising tariff equivalent to the coal.
The case officer replied that like other sources of power, Baggas is also rich source of power generation. They (Baggas based power plants) were not given special treatment. The rates were increased because of previous outstandings.
To a question about outing of Neelum Jehlum project from the National Grid, the case officer replied that the management of the project has submitted to the Nepra that the project would remain out of National Grid for the next two years.
During the hearing, CPPA informed the regulator that 13.31 billion electricity units were sold in June, while the actual generation cost stood at Rs 7.68 per unit against the reference cost of Rs 8.33 per unit. The agency said the reduced generation cost, due to lower reference cost of all fuels used during the month, would result in a relief of over Rs 8 billion for consumers for one month.
NEPRA Chairman directed officials to also apprise the power distribution companies (DISCOs) about the impact of circular debt. He sought monthly statistics of defaulted loans from DISCOs, to which officials responded that the data was not immediately available but would be submitted to the authority.
The chairman further instructed that complete statistics of all DISCOs be presented during the upcoming quarterly adjustment hearing scheduled for August 4.
If approved, the proposed 65 paisa per unit reduction would be applicable for one month to consumers of all DISCOs, excluding lifeline customers.
According to the data submitted by the Central Power Purchasing Agency Guarantee Limited (CPPA-G), NEPRA has been requested to approve a decrease of Rs 0.6541 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in the fuel charges. The reference fuel cost was Rs 8.3341/kWh, which is proposed to be revised downward based on the actual data for June 2025.
During June 2025, a total of 13,744 GWh of energy was generated, with hydel sources contributing the largest share at 39.36percent. Other significant contributors included RLNG (16.12pc), local coal (10.99%), imported coal (10.16%), and nuclear (10.06%). The costliest energy source remained imported electricity from Iran at Rs 22.5155/kWh, while solar energy was supplied at Rs 0.0000/kWh.
After accounting for transmission losses of 2.97% and other adjustments, 13,310 GWh were delivered to DISCOs at an average cost of Rs 7.6800/kWh.
