ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday announced that the government would not be raising the electricity tariff for protected consumers who use up to 200 units of power for a period of three months.
“The household consumers who consume up to 200 units of electricity will get a subsidy for three months — July, August, September,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told an event in Islamabad.
The announcement comes after public outcry over the government’s decision to increase the tariff massively, terming it as a pre-condition to secure the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) loan.
The prime minister, whose government has been under criticism for putting more burden on the salaried class through the new budget, said the subsidy would cost the government Rs50 billion.
He added these households make up 94 percent of the electricity consumers adding this concession will be covered through the budget’s development fund.
PM Shehbaz said under the new package, the cost of electricity will be Rs4 to Rs5 per unit and customers of K-Electric will also be entitled to this subsidy. The premier said the decision has been taken to give relief to the common man in the wake of the rise in the prices of electricity.
He said the three summer months are the hardest to cope with while from October onwards as the weather changes, the electricity consumption also goes down.
The PM added the coalition government will overcome all problems together and said that the only way to overcome economic woes is to stop corruption.
In a bid to achieve the IMF programme of over $6 billion, the federal government earlier this month increased the -power tariff of protected consumers by up to 51 percent and unprotected consumers by up to 43 percent.
Power Tariff
Among protected consumers’ categories, the tariff for those who fall under the slab of 1-100 units is raised by Rs3.95 per unit from Rs7.74 to Rs11.69 per unit. Those protected consumers who fall under the category of 101-200 will have to pay at least 41 percent more as their tariff has increased by Rs4.10 per unit from Rs10.06 to Rs14.16 per unit.
The unprotected consumers falling in the slab of 1-100 units a month will experience a maximum hike in the tariff in percentage term as these consumers will pay 43 percent more in their tariff as their tariff has increased by Rs7.11 per unit to Rs23.59 from Rs16.48 per unit.
While those who fall in the category of 101-200 units a month will pay 31 percent more as their tariff has swelled by Rs7.15 per unit to Rs30.10 from the existing Rs22.95 per unit.
Those falling under the slab of 201-300 units per month will pay 26 percent more as their tariff has increased by Rs7.12 per unit because their tariff has raised to Rs34.26 from Rs27.14 per unit.
Those who fall in the fourth slab of the 301-400 units will experience a 22 percent surge in the tariff as their tariff has jumped by Rs7.12 per unit to Rs39.15 from Rs32.03 per unit.
Similarly, customers who fall in the category of 401-500 per month unit slab will face a 17 percent increase as their tariff has surged by Rs6.12 per unit to Rs41.36 from Rs35.24 per unit and those consuming 501-600 units a month will also bear the increase in tariff by 17 percent as their tariff has swelled to Rs42.78 from 36.66 per unit.
Customers who consume 601-700 units a month will face a 16 percent increase as their tariff has gone up by Rs6.12 per unit to Rs43.92 from Rs37.80 per unit and those who consume more than 700 units per month will face a 14 percent increase as their tariff has jacked up by Rs6.12 per units to Rs48.84 per unit from Rs42.72 per unit.
