The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), in a report, has stated that there are certain surcharges in electricity bills which have nothing to do with a consumer’s power consumption.

The top authority, in its State of the Industry Report 2022, stressed the need to stop charging consumers with irrelevant taxes and surcharges, while the billing system requires restructuring.

The report also stated that an increase of Rs107 billion has been observed in capacity payments within the past one year. On the other hand, it added, capacity payments worth Rs721 billion were made from 2021 to 2022, which were only Rs614 billion until 2021.

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Nepra said that expensive power plants were utilised following the shortage of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which imposed an extra burden on consumers worth over Rs19 billion. “Despite the demand for electricity across the country, even the best power plants could not be operated.”

The report regretted that the government suffered a loss of Rs55 billion due to its lack of producing power from one of Guddu Power Plant’s units.

“Six sugar mills have been willing to buy electricity from power companies for the last two years, but these companies are not buying cheaper electricity from their own areas,” it added.

Nepra further said that according to the Constitution, electricity is every citizen’s basic right. However, it is not available to everyone.