ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Thursday urged Parliament to grant it stronger powers to take action against power Distribution Companies (Discos) involved in unjustified load shedding and overbilling, particularly those resorting to outages based on Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses.
NEPRA’s Member (Technical), Rafique Ahmad Shaikh, appealed to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet Division for special legislative authority to protect consumers from what he called the “cruelty” of Discos. His remarks came after Committee members expressed deep dissatisfaction with NEPRA’s performance regarding consumer protection, reliable power supply, and the unavailability of materials needed to replace faulty equipment.
NEPRA’s Member (Law) Amina Ahmed and Member (Development) Maqsood Anwar Khan were also present during the briefing, chaired by Malik Ibrar Ahmed. Chief Law Officer Mian Ibrahim delivered a detailed presentation covering various topics, including circular debt, tariff determination, overbilling, enforcement, market liberalization, energy sector reforms, and control of line losses and electricity theft.
Committee members, including Brig. Aslam Ghumman(retired) , Shahida Begum, and Nawabzada Mir Jamal Khan Raisani, raised serious concerns about NEPRA’s role in protecting consumers from overbilling, unscheduled load shedding, and other issues.
Mian Ibrahim informed the Committee that in June 2024, millions of electricity consumers across Pakistan received inflated bills due to violations of the standard 30/31-day billing cycle by some Discos.
He explained that Early meter readings led to pro-rata billing adjustments, causing inflated consumption levels and pushing consumers into higher tariff categories (e.g., from protected to non-protected, or lifeline to non-lifeline). Late meter readings, when not adjusted for billing days, also resulted in excessive charges.
He clarified that no pro-rata adjustment is allowed in cases of early readings, and in the event of delayed readings due to force majeure, excess units should be carried forward to the next billing cycle for the consumer’s benefit.
In total, 1.58 million consumers were affected. The financial impact was as follows: MEPCO: Rs 961 million (434,856 consumers) GEPCO: Rs 892 million (371,107 consumers) LESCO: Rs 488 million (178,516 consumers) Other affected companies included FESCO, HESCO, PESCO, QESCO, SEPCO, KE, and IESCO.
He assured the Committee that all affected bills were corrected and relief was provided to the consumers.
Regarding renewable energy, Member (Technical) noted that NEPRA had approved tariffs of 3–4 cents per kWh for several renewable energy projects. However, these projects were not approved by the government and were subsequently categorized differently.
Responding to questions about capacity payments, he clarified that such payments are standard practice worldwide and not unique to Pakistan. He added that NEPRA had changed some project contracts from “take-or-pay” to “take-and-pay” modes, thereby eliminating capacity payments for those cases.
Addressing load shedding based on AT&C losses, Rafique Shaikh emphasized that this practice violates NEPRA regulations. However, when NEPRA attempts to intervene, Discos claim they are acting on instructions from the Power Division.
He urged the Committee to strengthen NEPRA through legal amendments that would allow the authority to take stringent action against power companies. “At present, we are only empowered to impose fines,” he noted.
Standing Committee vowed to extend all support to protect consumers.
