Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir said on Wednesday that households consuming less than 200 units of electricity per month will be exempted from paying fuel charges adjustment (FCA) in their bills, clarifying details on the relief announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif a day ago.
Addressing a press conference, Dastgir added that the initiative was part of the relief measures, and will be implemented across two categories.
“The initiative is split into two parts,” he said. “First of all, people who consume less than 200 units of electricity on a monthly basis will be exempted from paying FCA through their bills for July and August 2022.”
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Moreover, he announced total waiver of FCA for farmers. According to him, 17 million people would benefit from this measure. Cumulatively, a relief of Rs22 billion is being given by the government, he noted.
Moving on to the second part of the initiative, he added that the government also eliminated the fixed tax on electricity bills of traders through a presidential ordinance.
“The levy was introduced in budget 2022-23 and now it has been eliminated,” the minister said. “Traders will now pay the tax as per their consumption of electricity.”
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He also announced that PM Shehbaz would unveil a large-scale solar power policy for Pakistan in the next few days.
He underlined that the policy would the country reduce reliance on imported fuel that would aid the government in offering cheap electricity to the public.
He also underlined that new electricity projects, to be established by the current government, would be fueled by domestic resources such as wind, coal, solar, hydel and nuclear power.
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On Tuesday, PM Shehbaz announced that 17 million power consumers would be exempted from paying FCA through electricity bills.
He said that the decision was taken after holding consultations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the government's coalition leaders.
The premier added that the government was also deliberating relief for the remaining 13 million consumers.
“The small traders faced difficulties due to fixed tax. Therefore, the government waived it,” the premier said at the outset of his talk, adding that the exemption will also apply to tubewell users.