The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet has decided to recover Rs76 billion of markup charges of PHL loans from electricity consumers via the imposition of a surcharge.
The imposition of an extra surcharge of Rs. 1 per unit for FY 2023–24, presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, was agreed upon by the ECC. This surcharge will be used to recoup any additional markup fees for PHL loans that are not already covered by the existing FC surcharge.
Customers of K-Electric will also be subject to the surcharge.
The Ministry of Energy (Power Division) presented a summary of the debt refinancing of Power Holding Limited during today’s session, along with a surcharge to recover markup charges.
The ECC approved the plan to recover Rs. 76 billion from PHL debts in four months, from March 2023 to June 2023, while exempting non-ToU home users with consumption equal to 300 units and private agriculture consumers.
It allowed the imposition of an extra surcharge of Rs 1 per unit for the fiscal years 2023–2024 in order to recover additional markup fees for PHL loans that were not already covered by the applicable FC surcharge. Customers of K-Electric will be subject to the aforementioned levies in order to maintain uniform pricing throughout the country.
The committee ordered the Finance division to issue a Government Guarantee for repayment of principal as well as interest/fees, etc. for the new facilities of Rs283.287 billion and deferred PHL’s principal installments payable in respect of Rs283.287 billion for a period of two years from the date of execution of fresh facilities.
Regarding the recovery of the staggered Fuel Charges Adjustment applicable for the months of August and September 2022, the ideas contained in another brief from the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) were taken into consideration and approved by the ECC.