Pakistan: Increase in electricity prices after petroleum products

 

NEPRA allowed the federal government to increase the electricity tariff by Rs 2.97. From October 2021, the government's requests to revise the price of electricity for domestic consumers by Rs 1.72 per unit were approved. In addition, a surcharge of Rs 25 per unit was allowed on commercial and agricultural consumers, but domestic consumers will be exempted from the surcharge. According to government sources, the federal government has decided to increase the price of electricity through various quarterly adjustments. In this regard, it was decided to increase the price of electricity by 85 paisa per unit in the fourth quarter of 2019-2020, while in the first second quarter of 2021, it was decided to increase the price of electricity by 90 paisa per unit. Additional charges from power consumers will be made in one year. The NEPRA price hike will not apply to lifeline customers. NEPRA's quarterly adjustment period will end in September this year and the increase in electricity prices will take effect from October.

At present, inflation is one of the main problems of the people and the increase in the prices of petroleum products and electricity has led to inflation. As a result, all the daily necessities have become expensive and out of reach of the people. Even in the previous government, the monster of inflation kept the people weak. In the last election campaign, PTI leader Imran Khan focused on the problems of the people related to poverty, inflation and unemployment and won the sympathy of the people by chanting slogans to get rid of these problems. In a public meeting, he also burnt expensive electricity bills, while liberating the country and the nation from the clutches of the IMF was also Imran Khan's coveted slogan. And mandated provincial power and then set expectations for an immediate solution to their problems from the PTI government. Unfortunately, instead of reducing the people's livelihood and inflation, the day-to-day problems have been exacerbated by the government's tough fiscal policies. The government was also forced to introduce two additional budgets before its first national budget, which in addition to raising tax rates, also imposed some new taxes, which placed a direct and indirect burden on the people. At the same time, the abnormal rise in the value of the dollar has kept inflation in check. The government, like the previous rulers, has maintained a policy of raising the prices of petroleum products, electricity and gas. They went to Dargah. Then the government, contrary to its claims and announcements, had to go to the IMF, for which the government agreed to accept all its terms and conditions for the ارب 6 billion bailout package, so the two federal budgets of the government Under the conditions under which the monster of inflation seemed to be practically out of control and it was time for the people to be buried alive.

In the third year of the PTI government, the people expected that it would now adopt policies to provide relief to the people. In this regard, the public was also presented with heartwarming figures on economic stability and rising annual growth rates, which were encouraged by the new Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen, who also announced that the budget would meet IMF requirements. Will not be tied to He also announced that we had rejected the IMF's request to increase electricity tariffs. The people saw a ray of hope that the third budget of the PTI government would be welfare, people-friendly and tax-free, for which there were hints from the finance minister and other government officials, but after the budget was presented, the prices of petroleum products Prices of petroleum products were raised again on July 1 as soon as the budget was passed in the National Assembly, while a number of new taxes were introduced in the budget and some existing tax rates were increased. On the basis of this budget, the people were seeing the monster of inflation getting thicker and fresher. Now, the further increase in electricity rates through NEPRA has also given a new shock to the weary people.

It is a one-sided spectacle that four different taxes are already being levied on consumers through electricity bills in which the general sales tax rate goes up with the electricity bills while different slabs of electricity consumption are fixed. Rates have been raised from Rs 9 to Rs 21 per unit. In this way, the people are forced to pay two to three times more electricity bill for more than 300 units in summer and they also face the pain of unannounced load shedding for several hours. Now the hammer of further increase in electricity rates has been rained on the aggrieved consumers and a surcharge of Rs 25 per unit has been imposed on industrial and agricultural consumers which has further degraded the country's industry and agriculture. The government should not ignore the fact that the people who are suffering from poverty, inflation and unemployment will no longer accept the government's excuse that all these issues are created by the policies of the previous rulers. The people now need relief in any form to breathe a sigh of relief without which the ruling PTI will not be able to gain acceptance among the people. For this, the government will have to review its economic and financial policies