ISLAMABAD: The Shehbaz Sharif government has decided to pass on the negative impact of Fuel Charges Adjustment (FCA) to agricultural consumers and domestic consumers using up to 300 units of electricity per month.
According to an official statement from the Power Division, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, in its May 21, 2015, policy guidelines, decided that any negative FCA adjustments would not be passed on to domestic consumers receiving subsidized electricity tariffs.
The June 24, 2015, FCA decision by the Authority confirmed the non-applicability of negative FCA for non-TOU (Time-of-Use) domestic consumers using up to 300 units. Additionally, the decision to exempt agricultural consumers from negative FCA has been in effect since November 2010.
In its June 9, 2021 letter, the Ministry of Energy filed policy guidelines for the re-targeting of power subsidies. Following these guidelines, the Authority introduced new domestic consumer categories in its September 23, 2021 decision. Since then, tariffs for the non-protected category have been gradually increased in line with government policy.
Given the tariff rationalization, continuing the policy of exempting non-protected domestic consumers and agricultural consumers from negative FCA may no longer align with the principles of earlier decisions.
The Power Division has requested NEPRA to reconsider the non-applicability of negative FCA to non-protected domestic and agricultural consumer categories.
