KE Hints at Increasing Electricity Bills Starting From Ramzan

K-Electric (KE) has announced that the enhanced use of re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) will cost an additional Rs. 18 billion between March and September 2021. The increased usage of RLNG is needed to meet the growing demand for power during the summer months, and consumers will partially share the increase in this cost, Express Tribune reported on Friday. ALSO READ SBP’s Foreign Reserves Surge to Highest Level in 4 Years The CEO of KE, Syed Moonis Abdullah Alvi, said that the company has decided to provide the maximum possible amount of relief to its consumers during Ramzan. The company has decided on a policy of no load shedding during Sehr and Iftar in Ramazan. However, KE will strictly follow its policy of intentional load shedding of up to seven hours a day in 25 percent of the areas of the city, he added. Low recovery of monthly billing from certain areas is the cause behind the company’s decision to resort to intentional load-shedding in those areas, the newspaper report said. KE’s Chief Financial Officer, Muhammad Aamir Ghaziani, said that the use of expensive gas would cost an additional burden of Rs. 2 per unit. ALSO READ Pakistan’s Gross External Financing Needs to Cross $28 Billion in 3 Years He remarked at a press conference on Thursday that this would accumulatively cost an additional Rs. 18 billion during March and September 2021. “However, the end-consumers will pay only Rs. 0.3 per unit. The remaining cost of Rs. 1.7 per unit will be paid by the government,” he added. The government will finance the cost either through subsidy or by compromising its revenue from the power firm. The CEO said that imported gas costs around Rs. 1,200 per mmbtu (million British thermal units), which is twice as much as the cost of local gas at Rs. 600 per mmbtu.