The government is to increase power tariff by 14 paisa per unit from May 1, 2010 under the monthly fuel adjustment formula, notification of which is expected to be issued within a couple of days. "It is almost agreed by the Authority that power tariff of discos will be revised upward by 14 paisa per unit," said the spokesman of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), Syed Israr, while taking to Business Recorder.

He said the Authority had held public hearing on Tuesday to consider the statistics submitted by the power companies before finalisation of determination. After detailed analysis of figures provided by the power companies and hearing the views of people present during the hearing the Authority agreed that the difference between the generation cost and distribution cost is about 90 paisa per unit.

The Authority observed that as 73 paisa per unit is already being paid by the consumers the real impact will be around 14 paisa per unit. The increase would be applicable retrospectively, from May 1, payment of which would be received from July.

It is pertinent to mention here that the government is yet to pass on 6 percent increase in tariff to the consumers from April 1, 2010 as per the Letter of Intent (LoI) signed and submitted to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a couple of months ago.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2010