The coalition administration has subtly changed how electricity consumers are invoiced by modifying the unit-based slabs and producing bills based on the cost of the units in the last slab rather than the second last slab.
Customers have seen exceptionally high electricity bills in August as a result.
Sources claim that the current government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has stopped allowing customers to avoid being charged in the higher slab if they exceed one unit. Except for the protected category of consumers, this modification is now applicable to all power users. Consumers of residential lifelines won’t receive any slab benefits.
Read More: PM directs revision of electricity bills within 24 hrs to reflect FAC relief
It should be emphasised that the government has merely established the protected and unprotected power consumer groups.
According to the tariff in effect as of August 1, the price for unprotected power consumers who use between one and one hundred units per month is Rs13.48, between one hundred and two hundred and one hundred units per month is Rs18.58, and between one hundred and three hundred units per month is Rs21.47. In a similar vein, the cost per unit for using 301–400 units per month is Rs24.63, while the cost per unit for using 401–500 units is Rs26.09, and the cost per unit for using 501–600 units per month is Rs27.01. Likewise, the price for using between 601 and 700 units per month is Rs27.65, and the price for using more than 700 units per month is Rs31.12.
After paying terribly high electricity bills last 3 months, Pakistani consumers now face additional burden of Rs59 billion because of Rs 4.34 per unit increase of fuel cost adjustment (FCA) by NEPRA for the month of July to be covered in September bills. 🤯😭
— Sana Jamal (@Sana_Jamal) September 13, 2022
As of the beginning of August, however, the protected category of lifeline power consumers would pay Rs3.95 per unit for usage of up to 50 units per month, Rs7.74 per unit for usage of 1 to 100 units per month, and Rs10.06 per unit for usage of 101 to 200 units per month.
Additionally, the Time of Use (ToU) metre charge is Rs. 33.23 per unit and Rs. 26.91 per unit, respectively, for peak and off-peak hours.
Profit also discovered that customers with single-phase connections pay Rs 75 per month, while customers with three-phase connections now pay Rs 150 per month as of the beginning of August.