KARACHI – Providing free electricity to a group of people would have significant budgetary implications for the government and the recent protests over inflated utility bills prompted government to end subsidy for its own employees.
As people from all walks of life expressed strong furor at unprecedentedly jacked up electricity bills with different groups calling for a civil disobedience campaign, the caretaker government announced to withdrawal electricity subsidy for government employees above Grade 17.
Interim Information minister Murtaza Solangi, and Federal Secretary of Power Division Rashid Mahmood Langrial in a press conference explained the ongoing situation to inflation hit people who are bearing the brunt of record inflation.
As an alternate to free power supply, officers above Grade 17 will get allowance from the government, the Minister announced, and said the matter likely be presented to the cabinet soon.
Furthermore, Solangi said that Nepra is in charge of determining tariffs, and not the incumbent government. He said power regulators decide tariff in light of fuel costs, currency rates, and loan interest rates adding that any one of these factors requires a tariff adjustment.
Federal Secretary of Power Division also cleared the air on elevated rates. Langrial said the necessity of tariff alterations is stemmed to a hike in KIBOR rates. He said the tariff was initially set at Rs 195 per dollar, but the value of the dollar surged to Rs284.
How much electricity base tariff hike will increase monthly bills?
