Islamabad:
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was to announce a reduction in RS8 per unit in the electricity rate on March 23 in the following approval of government proposals by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), sources announced on Wednesday.
According to sources, the officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Division of Electricity envisaged various options to reduce the prices of RS2 electricity per unit, while the government was aimed at implementing a reduction in RS6 as a permanent adjustment.
“The proposal will be finalized before March 23,” said sources, adding that the reduced rate would implement from April 1. “Consequently, electricity consumers will reduce invoices from May,” added the source. “On the total reduction of RS8 per unit, RS 4.73 per unit will be a permanent adjustment.”
The price change has occurred after the cancellation of contracts with six independent electricity producers (PPI) and the purchase of revision electricity with 16 PPIs and convert them into a model of “ take and payment ”, according to sources.
The conversion of power plants based on Bagasse from US dollars into Pakistani rupees – in which the US dollar has been set at RS168 – and the 13% reduction in capital return (ROE) for power plants (GPP) has also contributed to the reduction of prices.
Officials have said that the reduction in prices will now be calculated taking into account the impact of petroleum products prices, which decreased on the international market from March 16, 2025. The estimated budgetary impact on the maintenance of current oil prices is around 168 billion rupees.
