ISLAMABAD: The Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) has decided on Monday to increase the power tariff’s prices from Rs 4.89 per unit to Rs 7 to pay off the net Hydle profit of hydro power projects.
According to sources, the summary for scaling up the prices will be sent to National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) for approval as WAPDA Punjab Chairman Muzammil Hussain seeks more time for the payment procedure but Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has directed for early payment.
WAPDA will have to pay Rs 38 billion to the Punjab government by December 31 and the rest will be paid in three instalments each comprising of Rs 1.4 billion – for this the authority has decided to take additional money of Rs 82 billion from the consumers.
After delivering the money to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Shahbaz also directed the chairman to pay off all projects including the Ghazi Barotha Project.
It is pertinent to mention here that out of all the hydro power projects – whose payment was given by WAPDA to the Punjab government – Ghazi Barotha project is one of the biggest projects having 1,450 Megawatt (MW).
Similarly, other projects including Chashma Hydro power project of 184 MW, Jinnah Hydro power project of 96 MW, Rasool hydro power project of 22 MW, chi chon ki Malian hydro project of 13.2 MW, Nandipur hydro project of 13.8 MW, Shadi wall hydro project of 13.5 MW and Renala hydro project of 1.1 MW.
