ISLAMABAD: The business community of the federal capital has welcomed the Lahore High Court’s decision of annulling surcharges on electricity bills, which will provide relief to both industrial and domestic consumers.
Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Muzzamil Hussain Sabri, chairing the meeting of business community, said that surcharges in a commercial bill accounted for more than 43% of the total bill making electricity tariffs almost highest in the region.
Sabri said the average cost of commercial bill without surcharges was over Rs 17/unit while with the addition of surcharges, this average cost rose to around Rs 25/unit, which was highest in the region. Compared to this, the average tariff for the same unit was Rs 7.36 and Rs 5.47 respectively in India and Bangladesh while it was equal to Rs 8.59/unit in the US.
The ICCI president said the high electricity tariff was the main factor for high cost of doing business in Pakistan and stressed that government should immediately withdraw all surcharges, including equalisation surcharge, debt servicing surcharge, universal obligation fund surcharge and Neelum-Jhelum surcharge from electricity bills and refund or adjust the collected amount of surcharges in the coming bills as the court has termed these surcharges as illegal and unconstitutional.
