Power ministry moves to end six-month penalty above 200 units

The federal government is working to end a billing rule under which a household that crosses 200 units of monthly electricity consumption by even a single unit is charged at a higher rate for the next six months, Power Minister Awais Leghari told the Senate.

Leghari, who holds the Power Division portfolio, was speaking in a Senate session on the impact of electricity tariffs on consumers of power distribution companies. He said the government was considering raising the 200-unit threshold to 250 units, ProPakistani reported.

The issue was raised by Senator Abid Sher Ali, who said a consumer using 201 units can be shifted to a much steeper per-unit tariff, in effect being billed at the rates that apply to 400 units. He questioned how an overshoot of one unit could attract the charges of a far larger consumption slab.

Leghari said the government was working to remove the six-month additional charge imposed on consumers who cross the 200-unit limit. He said the number of consumers using fewer than 200 units a month had reached about 20 million.

He argued, however, that extending discounts to all of those consumers would not be appropriate, because some households use solar power to keep their grid consumption low. Relief, he said, would be focused on consumers living below the poverty line.

Daily Times reported that the government was considering changes to billing rules that penalise consumers for exceeding 200 units a month, and that the proposal was intended to answer complaints about higher bills after only small increases in consumption.

Neither report said that a notification had been issued, a timeline set or a tariff determination made. The move to a 250-unit threshold was described as under consideration, and the minister gave no figure for the relief he said the government wanted to target at poor households.

Under the arrangement described by both outlets, a household that goes past 200 units in a month does not simply pay a higher rate on the extra units; the higher rate is applied to its consumption for six months.