New power tariff to darken consumers' nights

LAHORE - Wapda consumers will have to go through another ordeal in case they use electricity in the evening and at night. The government, under the pretext of saving excessive use of power in the wake of record shortfall of 45,00 megawatt, will charge up to 50 per cent extra tariff from the consumers on using electricity in the evening time as against daytime, it was learnt on Tuesday.

The official sources in Pakistan Electric Power Company confirmed The Nation that under the new policy Wapda consumers were paying almost double for using electricity in the evening as compared to daytime.

They said that govt had introduced a new tariff with the name of ‘Time of Use’ tariff in Sept which is being implemented from the 5th of last month on the justification that by applying this formula the customers would use less power, they added.

The bureaucrats sitting in air-conditioned rooms, instead of chalking out a plan to enhance the production of electricity in the country, are devising such plans to plunder the downtrodden and already exhausted and tax-stricken industrialists, they said.