Power division admits blunder in KE’s surcharge

The Power Division on Tuesday confessed at a public hearing that it was pleading imposition of Rs1.52 per unit surcharge on consumers of K-Electric for tariff increase approved by Shehbaz Sharif-led federal cabinet with a major blunder and needed rectification. Waseem Mukhtar, the newly appointed chairman of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) who pushed for power tariff increases for years until recently because of his official position, presided over the public hearing on the request of the Power Division and reserved the judgment for want of written statements from relevant ministries of the federal government. The Power Division had sought the additional surcharge to raise about Rs25 billion from KE consumers over 12 months. This is on top of an average Rs30 per unit uniform national base tariff, Rs3.23 per unit financing cost surcharge and various taxes & duties besides the quarterly tariff adjustments and fuel cost adjustments that keep on changing on a quarterly and monthly basis. Mr Mukhtar has held various leading positions in the power sector until last year and used to lead teams who prepared summaries, cases and petitions for tariff increases in various forms, pushed their approvals from various forums and ensures implementations.