ECC greenlights winter package for electricity consumers

• The package aims to encourage the use of electricity for revenue generation.
• Power usage in winter ranges from 9,000 to 12,000 megawatts.
• The ECC also approves Rs 26.07 per kWh for all eligible consumers.

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet has approved the winter package for phased-in electricity by residential, commercial and industrial consumers, The News reported on Wednesday.

The existing government’s winter package aims to incentivize the use of electricity from the national grid to collect money from consumers to pay capacity charges amounting to around Rs 2.7 trillion for the current financial year.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government earlier this month announced the introduction of the ‘Bijli Shahulat Package’ for three months — December 2024 to February 2025.

The package will allow industries, commercial, general services and households to save significantly compared to current tariffs.

Power usage drops significantly during the winter season, ranging from about 9,000 to 12,000 megawatts, peaking in the summer at a high of over 32,000 MW.

Such a gap requires some incentives during the winter season to increase electricity consumption. In the wake of solar power, there has been a need to phase out electricity in the winter season.

In its meeting today under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Muhammad Aurangzeb, the ECC considered a proposal submitted by the Ministry of Power (Department of Power) regarding winter demand initiative for industrial, residential ToU (Time of Use) and non. -ToU consumers exceeding 200 units, commercial and general service consumers of Discos and K-Electric to enable optimum utilization of system generation capacity besides reducing gas demand due to shift of favorable demand towards electricity.

It was proposed that under the initiative, a tariff of Rs 26.07 per kilowatt hour will be levied on all eligible consumers for the respective incremental consumption, over and above the reference consumption during the respective months. The initiative will be valid for a three-month billing period from December 2024 to February 2025.

The reference consumption will be the higher of either the consumption of the relevant month in 2024 or the historical consumption of the last three years for the relevant months, based on a formula and terms and conditions placed before the ECC.

The ECC discussed the proposal and approved it, terming the subsidy-neutral temporary relief initiative worked out by the Power Division as timely and relevant in view of the recent hike in electricity tariffs and subdued demand across various categories of consumers.

In addition, the forum also considered a proposal submitted by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to transfer balance of Rs 3.140 billion of the old Emergency Cell (ERC) to the NDMA Fund to carry out its inland as well as overseas rescue and operations relief in accordance with the lawful mandate of the authority.

The recommendation was approved on the condition that since the balances in the ERC consisted of public donations and were granted for flood and earthquake relief, rescue and rehabilitation, the NDMA would spend those balances for the said purpose.