KE consumers, who are already hit by inflated bills, are now going to face more exacerbated situation, following an approval given by Nepra for tariff reformation that would escalate residential consumers' power bills by 25-30 per cent. According to sources, the Ministry of Water and Power through its SRO 677(1) 2015, has allowed KE to give the benefit of only one previous slab for its consumers unlike the power utility's previous bill calculation mechanism. Moreover national electric power regulatory authority (Nepra), in defiance of its law, has approved the same without taking the consumers into confidence on the issue.
They said earlier KE used to calculate bills on the basis of 5 tariff slabs such as Slab-1 that was between 1-100 units with Rs 5.79 per unit, Slab-2, 101-200 units with Rs 8.11 per unit, Slab-3, 201-300 units with Rs 10.20 per unit, slab-4, 301-700 units with Rs 16 per unit, Slab No-5 above 700 units with Rs 18 per unit. KE used to give the benefit of all previous slabs for its residential consumers prior to the SRO of ministry of water and power.
While elaborating they said if a user's monthly consumption was 383 units, in such situation, KE used to calculate the bill giving benefits of all previous tariff slabs as 1-100 units Rs 5.79x100= Rs 579, similarly, 101-200 units Rs 8.11x100=Rs 811, in the same way 201-300 units Rs 10.20= Rs 1020, whereas 301-701 Rs 16x83=Rs 1328. Hence the total amount of bill was Rs 3738.
However as per the new billing formula as approved by Nepra, KE is entitled to calculate the same 383 units in this way- units 300x Rs 10.20= Rs 3060, and units 83x Rs 16= Rs 1328. Here the power utility passed over the two slabs as units 1-100 and 101-200, hence the total amount of bill has gone up to Rs 4388 as against Rs 3738 of previous calculation, depicting an increase of Rs 650.
Similarly, if a user's monthly power consummation is 701 units, in such case KE would directly calculate his bill with Rs 18 per units (701x18=Rs 12618) without giving him any benefits of all previous slabs. The regulatory body is bound to call public hearing when it is going to make changes on tariff structure or on the policy of billing on request of any power utility. But in recent decision it did not bother to take the stakeholders on board and imposed an arbitrarily decision, they regretted, sources said.
A KE spokesman said the ministry of water and power issued an SRO No 677(1) 2015 dated July 14 allowing KE to make changes in the bill calculation formula for residential consumers. According to him "it is mentioned in the SRO that the residential consumers would be given the benefit of only one previous slab," He also said that the same was approved by Nepra later.
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