Federal Minister for Energy Awais Leghari has said the government is working to end the practice of charging higher rates for six months when electricity consumption exceeds 200 units by even one unit. He added that the 200-unit threshold may be raised to 250 units.
Leghari made the remarks in the Senate in response to a calling attention notice moved by Abid Sher Ali on the burden of distribution company tariffs. Sher Ali told the House that a consumer moving from 200 to 201 units sees the tariff rise from Rs15 to Rs30 per unit, and is then billed at the 400-unit slab rate for six months.
The minister said the number of consumers using fewer than 200 units has reached 20 million. He said extending a discount to all of them would not be appropriate, as the group includes solar users whose grid consumption is low because of their panels. He said consumers living below the poverty line would be given the benefit of such a discount.
Detection Bill Reforms
Leghari had earlier announced a complete ban on issuing manual detection bills while chairing a meeting of the boards of power distribution companies (DISCOs). He said field staff and SDOs would no longer be allowed to issue them, and that doing so would be treated as serious misconduct, with strict action against those involved.
All detection billing has been digitised through a central online portal, which is now mandatory for all DISCOs. The meeting also decided the following:
- Faulty or burnt meters must be replaced within a maximum of two billing cycles (two months).
- Average billing for a faulty meter will be limited to two months.
- Recovery for slow or fast meters will be limited to the previous two billing cycles.
- Detection bills for illegal use will cover three months for ordinary consumers.
- For registered consumers, detection bills will be capped at six months, and for unregistered consumers at 12 months.
Leghari said proposals to amend the Consumer Service Manual will be presented in the coming days. DISCO boards and committees will review the accuracy of detection bills every month.
He said preventing electricity theft remains the government’s top priority, but consumers will not be burdened arbitrarily.