- Ministry says will attempt to restructure energy sector’s debt to carry down charges.
- No fiscal house for additional subsidies, says Awais Leghari.
- Vitality minister stresses growing mounted charges, slash per unit value.
Within the midst of a booming pattern through which plenty are turning to photo voltaic vitality, Federal Minister for Vitality (Energy Division) Awais Leghari has mentioned that the variety of customers utilizing lower than 200 items of electrical energy has elevated from 9 million to 21 million.
“Prosperous people make their means into the record of customers utilizing lower than 200 items by putting in photo voltaic programs. It’s not as much as the state to provide a 70% low cost on electrical energy costs to such a big section,” mentioned Leghari whereas talking to Geo Information programme “Naya Pakistan” on Sunday.
Talking on the ability charges, he mentioned that the nation’s industrial energy charge has come near different international locations within the area and that the claims of six to seven US cents per unit of electrical energy in Bangladesh had been flawed.
“We’ll attempt to restructure the ability sector’s debt with a view to carry down the electrical energy charges general and never only for industries,” he remarked.
Noting that there was no fiscal house for additional subsidies, the minister mentioned that the federal government can rationalise the difficulty by altering the tariff construction, i.e., growing the mounted charges and decreasing the per unit value.
The minister’s assertion comes days after the federal authorities rolled out aid measures for the industries, asserting a Rs4.04 per unit discount in electrical energy tariff whereas additionally decreasing the export refinance scheme charge from the present 7.5% to 4.5% to supply fast aid to companies and speed up export-led development.
Individually, the Centre has proposed a downward revision of as much as Rs1.53 per unit within the base electrical energy tariff for some home energy customers, whereas recommending increased mounted month-to-month expenses for sure protected and unprotected households, in line with a movement filed with the Nationwide Electrical Energy Regulatory Authority (Nepra).
Below the proposal, protected customers utilizing 51–200 items would face mounted expenses of Rs200–300 per 30 days, whereas unprotected customers consuming as much as 600 items might see as much as 100% will increase in mounted expenses, with month-to-month charges rising from Rs200 to Rs675 relying on consumption. Conversely, households consuming 601–700 items and above 700 items would see mounted expenses diminished from Rs800–1000 to Rs675 per 30 days.
The federal government additionally proposed reductions in base tariffs for higher-usage unprotected customers. For 301–400 items consumption, a drop of Rs1.53 per unit to Rs36.46 is proposed; for 401–500 items, Rs1.27 to Rs38.95 and for 501–600 items, a lower of Rs1.40 to Rs40.22 has been urged.
Equally, for 601–700 items, Rs0.91 per unit lower to Rs41.85; and above 700 items, Rs0.49 to Rs47.20 per unit has been proposed.
Decrease-usage unprotected customers (1–300 items) and lifeline protected customers would see tariffs largely unchanged, starting from Rs3.95 to Rs33.10 per unit relying on utilization.
Nepra will maintain a public listening to on February 10 (tomorrow), 2026, permitting stakeholders and customers to touch upon the proposed tariff changes.
In the meantime, responding to a query pertaining to the difficulty of transition to gross metering/internet billing from the present internet metering, Leghari mentioned {that a} shopper utilising photo voltaic internet metering makes use of all the electrical energy produced by him and does not export then he’ll be capable to get better his value/funding — inside 18 months, offered that the proposed laws come into impact.
Whereas, a photo voltaic internet metering consumer who makes use of 40% of the electrical energy produced by him and exports the speed, he too will be capable to get better his value in as much as three and a half years in case of the brand new proposed laws, he added.
Comparatively, he famous, beneath the prevailing laws with a buyback charge of Rs27 per unit for internet metering and never internet billing, than a shopper can get better his funding inside round 18 months — practically doubling the interval of restoration for customers exporting electrical energy items.
