ISLAMABAD: Chairman, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) Tauseef. H. Farooqi has asked Secretary Power Division to take appropriate action against Discos' for delayed and incomplete tariff petitions, sources in NEPRA told Business Recorder.
Farooqi, in a letter to Secretary Power Division has drawn his attention to the casual attitude of Discos towards discharge of one of their crucial obligations to submit petitions for determination of consumer-end tariff in respect of their distribution and supply business.
According to the regulator, principally, the consumer end tariff of Discos should be determined prior to start of its control period which requires submission of petitions by them well in time. The timelines and manners for submission of tariff petitions are prescribed in NEPRA Guidelines for determination of Consumer End tariff (Methodology and Process) 2015.
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Under the Tariff Guidelines, DISCOs are required to submit Integrated Generation, Transmission and Distribution Expansion and Investment Program (IGTDP), as well as, assessment of transmission and distribution (T&D) losses by September 1 each year for approval of the Authority prior to submission of tariff petition.
NEPRA says that tariff petition is required to be submitted by January 31 each year, along with the approved Integrated Generation, Transmission and Distribution Plan (IGTDP).
However, over the period, Discos have shown lack of capacity and will for fulfilment of their responsibility and failed to follow the timelines and procedure stipulated under the Tariff Guidelines for submission of their tariff petitions along with complete information required there-under that has not only resulted in bypassing the approval of IGTDP but also in delayed determination of tariff in the past.
Currently three Discos,IESCO, FESCO and LESCO, are operating under Multi-Year Tariff Determinations for control period of five years, while seven Discos (MEPCO, GEPCO, PESCO, HESCO, SEPCO, TESCO and QESCO) have been granted consumer-end tariff up to FY 2019-20 under single year tariff regime. Through the tariff determinations for FY 2019-20, the Authority clearly directed Discos to submit their tariff petitions to avoid delay in tariff determination. However, despite Authority's clear directions to submit the tariff petitions for FY 2020-21 and onwards, the Discos failed to submit tariff petitions in timely manner.
Chairman NEPRA argued that besides the delayed submission, more concerning is the poor quality of petitions as the received petitions lacked the critical information required under the Tariff Guidelines for processing due to which tariff petitions submitted by some Discos were returned while tariff petitions of some Discos with minor shortcomings were admitted with the direction to obtain the missing information during processing of the petitions, adding that incomplete submission is a major obstruction for timely finalization of determination by the Authority.
"Facts are brought to your notice with the recommendation to take appropriate action against the person(s) responsible for delayed and incomplete submission of tariff petitions and give instruction to the Discos for timely submission of petition in future following the manners prescribed in applicable Rules/ Regulations, Guidelines etc," said chairman NEPRA.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021