Power tariff determination: Supreme Court says won''t brook monopolistic behaviour

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday made it loud and clear that monopoly and collusive behaviour has no room in determining the power tariff unlawfully and the court will ensure transparency in the system in accordance with law.
A three-member bench was hearing a loadshedding case in the Supreme Court, where Justice Chaudhry categorically said the power tariff determination must be done in a transparent manner and the apex court would not brook any sort of monopolistic behaviour.
The bench directed chairman National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to apprise the court whether the stakeholders were provided the opportunity to participate in the process of reconsidering power tariff determination or a unilateral decision was taken.
Justice Chaudhry asked chairman NEPRA Naeem Khawaja to inform the court on the next date of hearing whether or not the major stakeholders were taken into confidence while reconsidering the determination of power tariff about a notification issued on October 11.
He further told the Nepra Chairman to brief the court on how electricity tariff could be raised on government''s directives, adding that electricity generated from oil and gas could not cost equally. He directed the regulatory body to devise a foolproof mechanism to determine the electricity tariff - a major concern for the lifeline consumers. As the government has no proper mechanism to fix the price of electricity produced through gas and oil, the Chief Justice noted that power generated through gas should cost less and its price should also be different from that produced through oil.
He advised Nepra chairman to hire a lawyer so that he could assist the court on the instant matter properly. The court also issued notice to Attorney General for Pakistan to appear before the court on the next date of hearing. The chairman Nepra - a close relative of federal minister for water and power - miserably failed to satisfy the bench about the procedure being adopted to determine power tariff.
The Chief Justice observed that the government had put all the burden of line losses on poor consumers, who had been paying their electricity bills regularly but there was no let-up in loadshedding. Chairman Nepra submitted before the court that they always determined the power tariff of companies differently as IESCO was the most efficient company; hence its tariff rates were comparatively low.
He admitted that the government was providing a subsidy to inefficient companies. He told the court that 30 to 40 percent consumers were using less than 50 units and the government charged Rs 2 per unit from them. In answer to court query regarding recovery of outstanding dues of electricity as well as overall power generation, Zargahm Ishak Khan, MD Pepco, informed the court that the total power generation presently was 13,000MW while 12,800MW was during off-peak hours. However, he said the required power generation was 14,300MW at peak hours.
Referring to the recovery of outstanding electricity dues, Zargham Iskah Khan told the court that every distribution company was required to recover the outstanding dues. When the Chief Justice asked him to identify those who refuse to recover the outstanding dues, Zargham replied that there were different consumers. MD Pepco further said that at present some Rs 460 billion was outstanding in the head of recovery of electricity bills, including Rs 280 billion of private sector. However, he said the industrial sector appeared as a good paymaster. The hearing of case was adjourned till November 6.