The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Tuesday informed the Sindh High Court (SHC) that issue of Industrial Support Package (ISP) does not fall under its purview, and it pertains to the federal government.
NEPRA stated this in its reply submitted against a petition moved by industrialists against industrial support adjustment surcharge (ISAP) in their electricity bills, which the court had ordered not be charged until the petition is decided.
NEPRA, one of the respondents in the petition, contended that the issue of ISP pertains to the government of Pakistan and does not fall within the purview of NEPRA as SRO No. 12 (1)/2019 dated 1st January 2019, SRO No. 810 (1)/2019 dated 12th July 2019, corrigendum dated 22nd January 2020 were issued by the federal government without intimation to NEPRA.
NEPRA argued that the constitutional petition is not maintainable in its present form, and there is no cause of action against NEPRA as question of grant of subsidy or withdrawal of the subsidy squarely rest with the federal government.
As this is a prerogative of the federal government and fall under their discretion, hence NEPRA out of its own cannot grant or deny the subsidy in favour of any entity, the authority stated. Since ISPA is a subsidy/relief provided by the federal government, therefore, NEPRA has no concern on levy of ISPA, it maintained. NEPRA contended that the petition is not maintainable in its present form as factual controversies have been raised by the petitioner, which cannot be gone into in exercise of extraordinary constitutional jurisdiction and stated that the petition is liable to be dismissed because the petitioner has no cause of action whatsoever against the respondent.
Comments
Comments are closed.