New Delhi, March 2 – The power sector policy of the Pakistani government remains chaotic, leading to further disappointment for the country's fragile industrial sector.
Industrial consumers were told that electricity tariffs would fall by Rs 4.04 per unit for the January billing cycle. Within that very cycle, CPPA-G has sought a positive Fuel Charges Adjustment of Rs 1.78 per unit.
A quarterly adjustment of approximately Re 0.40 per unit is also expected. The effective benefit, therefore, shrinks to around Rs 1.70–1.80 per unit.
More than half of the announced relief is effectively nullified immediately, reflecting the contradiction in Pakistan's power-sector policy, according to an article in the Karachi-based Business Recorder.
This is not a technical dispute over pass-through mechanics. It is a matter of credibility. When policy relief disappears in real time, planning certainty vanishes with it.
Exporters price contracts months in advance. They secure orders, allocate working capital, and manage labor based on expected input costs. If those expectations change within the same billing period, the entire premise of predictability collapses, the article observes.
The FPCCI (Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry) has demanded a review of the fuel and quarterly references embedded in the current tariff framework.
Two tariff resets within a short span, first in July and then in January, have intensified volatility. The industry does not operate on rolling monthly recalculations. It requires a defined stability horizon.
Without it, competitiveness suffers. Pakistan's energy costs are already high relative to regional peers. Manufacturers competing in global markets cannot absorb unpredictable swings layered on top of structurally elevated tariffs, the article observes.
FPCCI's call to revisit the January FCA impact and rationalize fuel benchmark assumptions deserves serious consideration.
Aligning projected fuel parameters with prevailing and forward market indicators would reduce abrupt corrections.
Establishing a stability framework for industrial tariffs would restore confidence that announced relief will endure beyond the press release, the article added.