Amongst 4.5 million power consumers of Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO), a few will have sigh of relief as Lahore High Court (LHC) Wednesday directed the distribution company to issue revised bills without fuel price adjustment (FPA) charges till final adjudication of pleas seeking reversal of unfair amount in account of the charges.
Besides, on the same day, the federal government’s power minister Khurram Dastgir Khan claimed while addressing a press conference in metropolis Karachi the incumbent government has announced FPA charges exemption to consumers who utilized less than 200 units in June 2022 saying the exemption will cost the national kitty Rs22 billion.
Invoking jurisdiction of the LHC, Ch Sadiq and others made federal government, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), LESCO and others on the collection of FPA in the bills and sought the court directives to respondent for charges withdrawal.
Appearing before single-member bench of the Justice Shahid Waheed, counsel for the petitioners argued that respondents had enhanced the amount of the FPA in the bills for the months of July. He apprised the bench that already the court has granted interim relief to the extent of FPA charges in two cases.
He argued the process, assessment, observations, purported calculations and the claim of the FPA in the electricity bills was not based on legally verifiable technical and financial data with respect to power production and cost calculation.
He urged the court to direct the federal government to undertake all necessary steps to bring forward a uniformed regulatory framework in connection with FPA calculations, tariff determination and electricity billing. The counsel prayed the bench to set aside the enhanced FPA charges in electricity bills for the month of July with plea to suspend the same till final decision in the matter.
After hearing the arguments, the bench allowed the pleas, suspending FPA charges collection from the petitioners till next hearing amid seeking reply from the respondents whereas the bench also issued directives to fixture branch to club identical pleas in the matter. Later, the bench adjourned hearing of the case till September 14.
SC moved against FPA charges;
Meanwhile, a pro bono publico lawyer of Supreme Court Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta filed a petition in the top court on Wednesday seeking directives for withdrawal FPA from electricity bills the power companies had dispatched to consumers during July-August. Bhutta submitted that over the last few days, electricity consumers across different cities of the country had taken to the streets against the FPA and other taxes in the bills, as the payables had jacked up to an unbearable level for them.
