Govt gives electric shock to commercial, agriculture, bulk consumers by hiking tariff
Business
The hike is proposed to be slapped from July 1
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – After over-burdening domestic consumers, the cabinet has overloaded bulk, commercial and agricultural consumers by approving an increase in the base electricity tariff.
However, the cabinet kept the base tariff for industrial consumers unchanged.
The cabinet approved a hike of Rs8.04 in base tariff for commercial consumers, Rs6.62 for agriculture consumers, Rs6.96 for general services and Rs5.96 for bulk consumers.
According to sources, approval was taken from the federal cabinet through circulating a summary to increase the base tariff for commercial consumers by Rs8.04 after which the tariff would be hiked to 77.15 per unit for commercial consumers from July 1.
Similarly, the base tariff for agricultural consumers has gone up to Rs46.83 per unit and Rs61.03 per unit for general services, sources said.
After a hike of Rs5.51 per unit, bulk consumers would pay Rs59.96 a unit from July 1, sources added.
They said the cabinet decision has been conveyed to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA). After NEPRA's approval, the federal government is all set to issue a notification to increase the base tariff.
It may be noted that the cabinet has already increased the base electricity tariff for domestic consumers by Rs7.12 per unit. However, consumers who use up to 200 units per month have been exempted from the increase for three months – from July to September 2024.
The increase in base electricity tariff for domestic and other consumers is proposed to be implemented from July 1.
