Telecom companies denied cheaper industrial power tariff

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has rejected a request of the telecom and cellular ‘industry’ to change its power tariff from commercial to a cheaper industrial electricity tariff. Nepra reached the conclusion after the ministries of energy and finance opposed the telecom industry’s petitions due to an expected loss of over Rs20 billion in annual revenue and the resultant need to pass on this financial gap to other consumers or be booked against circular debt that already stands close to Rs2.5 trillion. The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and the four other cellular companies — Telenor, Ufone, Jazz and Zong — with support from the IT ministry had been advocating change in tariff over the years during all public hearings on power tariff and then filed formal petitions. They pleaded that the telecom sector had been declared an “industry” through various decisions and laws and therefore should be charged an industrial tariff instead of a commercial one. The commercial tariff currently ranges between Rs29 and 33 per unit, or kilowatt-hour (kwh), excluding taxes as compared to the industrial tariff of Rs24-29 per unit.