ISLAMABAD – Federal Minister for Energy Awais Leghari has announced plans to abolish the additional electricity charges formula for consumers whose monthly consumption exceeds 200 units.
Speaking during a Senate session, Awais Leghari said the government was going to abolish the additional charges formula for six months for electricity consumers whose usage exceeds 201 units.
He noted that the current arrangement had benefited wealthier consumers more than low-income households.
During the Senate discussion, Senator Abid Sher Ali highlighted the financial burden of electricity tariffs on millions of Pakistanis, including protected consumers.
He questioned why electricity bills could increase sharply when a household’s consumption exceeded the 200-unit threshold by even a single unit. He also asked whether ordinary consumers were being made to bear the cost of electricity theft and losses within distribution companies.
In response, Leghari said electricity tariff slabs were necessary but acknowledged the need to resolve the difficulties associated with the existing system.
The minister said the number of consumers using up to 200 units of electricity had reached approximately 20 million. He added that many consumers in this category also relied on solar energy.
The government is now working on a system that would determine electricity relief according to household poverty levels instead of relying solely on the number of units consumed.
The energy minister told the Senate that the circular debt in the power sector had declined to Rs1,670 billion. The government aims to eliminate the circular debt within the next four years, he said, adding that the debt servicing surcharge associated with circular debt would also be abolished.
According to Leghari, the Energy Ministry received Rs1,180 billion in budgetary support when the current government took office. That support has decreased to Rs700 billion in the current fiscal year.
He also said annual losses of power distribution companies (DISCOs) had been reduced, although the benefits of those improvements had not yet been passed on to electricity consumers.
