ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) Wednesday approved Rs 1.70 per unit cut in power tariff for all distribution companies except K-Electric under monthly fuel adjustment mechanism.

The NEPRA approved the power cut for July in a public hearing held here on the petition filed by Central Power Purchasing Agency Guarantee Limited (CPPA-G).

The consumers will get benefit of around Rs 20 billion and the relief will be given in next month bills.

The CPPA-G filed a petition before the power regulator for a tariff cut on behalf of ex-Wapda distribution companies.

However, the relief will not apply to agricultural consumers and residential consumers using less than 300 units.

In its petition, the CPPA-G reported that it had charged consumers a reference tariff of Rs 6.49 per unit in July when actual fuel cost turned out to be Rs 4.78.

Therefore, there is a legal requirement to return Rs 1.70 per unit to consumers.

The reduction in actual generation cost was mainly because of a decline in fuel prices and higher contribution from the cheapest source hydropower.

It said that about 12,496.63 GWh (Gigawatt hours) were generated in July and 12,267.41 GWh delivered to the distribution companies.

Hydropower generation stood at 30.79 per cent, coal 2.95 per cent, furnace oil 25.59 per cent, RLNG 12 per cent, Gas 17.17 per cent and Nuclear 5.13 per cent.

The CPPA said that total energy was generated at a total cost of Rs 58.65 billion or Rs 4.69 per unit.