The National Assembly has passed the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Bill, 2017 to strengthen the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra).
The legislation is meant to radically turn the power sector around.
It would empower Nepra to establish district-level complaint offices to hear and decide on complaints regarding overbilling, non-compliance of instructions respecting metering and collection of approved charges, disconnection in case of non-payment of charges, electric power theft, and use of energy for purposes other than for which it was supplied.
According to clause 45 of the bill, an employee of a licensee who is found to be a party to the contravention of the law, risks three years in prison, a fine of up to Rs10mn, or both.
If on inspection by an office of complaints, a wilful contravention against a company is established, a fine of between Rs10mn and Rs200mn would be imposed.
While the lower house of Parliament okayed the legislation, the opposition members forced the rejection of Clause 40 of the bill pertaining to imposition of surcharge on consumers on top of the existing tariff.
This clause stated that the federal government may, in addition to the tariff determined by Nepra, impose a surcharge on consumers as after notification in the official gazette.
The surcharge was meant to be imposed for purposes of achieving goals of economic and social cohesion, environment protection, and energy efficiency.
Parliamentarians from opposition parties including Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Syed Naveed Qamar, and Dr Shireen Mazari insisted that it was power of the legislature to approve taxation and surcharges.
They demanded that the clause relating to the imposition of surcharge be dropped or withdrawn permanently.
With majority voice, the opposition managed to get clause 40 rejected by the House.
The Amendment Bill in the Electric Power Act, 1997 has been passed in pursuance of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) decision in 2013.
In 2013, the CCI approved the National Power Policy of 2013, laying down key components of a development strategy for achieving an efficient, competitive and sustainable power sector in Pakistan.
The statement of objects and reasons of the bill says that the Policy not only affirms the resolve of the federal government to “limit its role to policy making” and to ensure that “unless necessary, service delivery will be promoted through a fiercely competitive and transparent private sector”, it also approves the strengthening of Nepra as “a world-class regulatory authority with sophisticated and efficient capacity to establish tariffs and set the foundation for a competitive bidding process”.
For the first time the amendment will give Nepra the power to make regulations.
Many areas of regulation are presently required to be prescribed through rules, which require the federal government’s approval.
However, with the passage of the proposed amendments, most regulated areas will fall within the sole domain of Nepra, to be administered by regulations developed through a process of public consultation.
As these amendments are bound to increase the scope of the regulated sector, an enhanced regulatory capacity has also been proposed for Nepra.
With enhanced powers of enforcement and broadened regulatory scope, proposals for ensuring accountability of regulatory decisions were also included in the amendments.
Introduction of an Appellate Tribunal comprising two technical members, chaired by a former high court judge, is also the main feature of the Bill.
To assure its independence, the tribunal will have a separate fund, and be empowered to seek external expert opinions, be they national or international.
For the sake of efficiency, the decisions of the tribunal would be time-bound so that the problems associated with more than 1,000 pending litigations in the sector are effectively mitigated in a timely manner.
Moreover, to maintain regulatory independence, if an appeal is in relation to a tariff setting determination of Nepra, the Appellate Tribunal will be unable to substitute the determination of Nepra, and instead, refer the matter back to the authority with guidelines.

Related Story