The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) held a hearing on the first quarterly adjustment requests from DISCOs and K-Electric.

The federal government submitted a proposal seeking this Rs0.45 per unit hike under the quarterly adjustment.

The hearing was chaired by NEPRA Chairman Waseem Mukhtar. According to officials, DISCOs have demanded Rs8,410,000,000 under the adjustment for the first quarter.

During the hearing, consumer representatives strongly opposed the proposal, pointing out that the Prime Minister had already announced a Rs7.41 reduction in electricity prices for three months.

They said the government should not increase tariffs again when circular debt is still growing and new relief packages for agricultural and industrial consumers have just been announced.

Sindh Member Rafiq Sheikh remarked that as long as the current structure of the power sector remains unchanged, the circular debt crisis will not end.

Industrial consumers added that they are already paying Rs3.23 per unit as a surcharge to cover circular debt, and now banks are again being paid interest on new loans taken to manage these debts.

Read More: FBR increases manual tax filing deadline

NEPRA’s member stated that unless losses, power theft, and poor recovery rates are controlled, circular debt will continue to rise.

The Power Division informed the authority that the losses have increased due to low recovery and additional inefficiencies.

NEPRA has completed the hearing and will now review the data before sending its final decision to the federal government.