(Owais Kayani) According to a Nepra report, power companies faced an inability to reduce losses and increase collections in the financial year 2023-24, resulting in increased revolving loans and additional financial burden on consumers.
Nepra has released the Power Sector State of Industry Report 2024, according to which power companies failed to reduce losses and increase collections in the financial year 2023-24.
The report states that due to increasing losses and low collections, a loss of 590 billion 51 crore rupees was incurred during the year, during which the losses of power companies stood at 31.18 percent while the collection rate of discos stood at 44.92 percent.
The report further stated that revolving loans increased by Rs 276 billion due to excess losses, and revolving loans increased by Rs 314 billion 51 crore due to shortfall in collections.
The report also stated that electricity consumers consumed only 88.33% of electricity in the financial year 2023-24, Nepra stressed that strict action should be taken against defaulters instead of shutting down feeders.
In addition, due to system inefficiencies, electricity consumers are burdened with taxes, surcharges and cross-subsidies, which is causing the increase in electricity rates.
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