ISLAMABAD – Federal Minister for Power Division Awais Leghari said the government is working to end the practice of charging extra for six months when a consumer’s usage exceeds 200 units by even a single unit.
Speaking in the Senate session on the burden of distribution companies’ tariffs on consumers, Abid Sher Ali said that if consumption rises from 200 to 201 units, the tariff jumps from Rs15 to Rs30 per unit. He asked how a person using 201 units could be made to pay a bill at the 400-unit slab rate, adding that by increasing the units, the authorities were piling the burden on poor people. “You suck the blood of the poor man for six months,” he said.
Responding to Abid Sher Ali’s calling attention notice, Awais Leghari said work was under way to end the six-month extra charges applied after exceeding 200 units by one unit, and that the 200-unit threshold could be raised to 250 units.
He said the number of consumers using fewer than 200 units had reached 20 million. He added that it would not be appropriate to give a discount to everyone below 200 units, as this group also includes people who have solar panels, which reduce their units.
Awais Leghari said consumers living below the poverty line would be given the benefit of such a discount.
