Electricity crisis deepens in Karachi

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DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Special committee announces power tariff relief

Special committee announces power tariff relief

ISLAMABAD: A special committee constituted to review the recent hike in power tariffs announced on Friday that consumers across the country will pay only 60 per cent of their total bills for this month.

Penalties for late payments have also been waived and the last date for deposit of bills has been extended by ten days.

The Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) will issue instructions to all distribution companies, including the much-criticised Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) to make arrangements for deducting 40 per cent from electricity bills.

This relief facility will apply to all consumers - **domestic, commercial and industrial. **

The decision was reached after hours of deliberations amongst committee members, which include representatives from parliament, trade associations, distribution companies and the Ministry of Water and Power.

Headed by Water and Power Minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, the committee decided that consumers should not pay full bills until a sub-committee found the 31 per cent increase to be justified.

Most of Pakistan electricity comes from burning fissile fuel, especially crude oil. In July and August, crude oil price touched $140 a barrel, so price of electricity production gone up.

Anyhow, today crude oil is selling at around $65 a barrel, almost half of what it was in June/July 2008. So, high price of electricity and petrol that government decided to charge couple of months ago are not justified. Actually, today price is substantially higher than last year because government has taken away most subsidies and due to rupee devaluation, else crude oil price is lower than last year, and thus Pakistanis should pay lower electricity bill and petrol price what they were paying last year.