Bureau Report PESHAWAR, Sept 15: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday withdrew a writ petition challenging hike in power tariff by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) following which enhanced power tariff would be applicable to around 2.4 million power consumers in the province in line with the tariff applicable in other provinces.

The petitioner’s counsel Shumail Butt informed a two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Mazhar Alam Minakhel about the decision of the government to withdraw the instant writ petition.

The high court has since Dec last stayed raise in power tariff by the Nepra on the electricity distributed in the province through the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco).

Mr Butt informed the court that the petitioner had reached an agreement with the federal government in this respect following which uniform power tariff would be applicable to the consumers here in line with the tariff applicable in rest of the three provinces.

He added that the federal government agreed that the tariff enhanced since March 1, 2008 would not be imposed on consumers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with retrospective effect and instead it would be applicable now onwards.

The petitioner’s requested that the new tariff may be applied from next billing month and not current as there was no mechanism available with the Pesco to determine how much units a consumer had utilised till Sept 15, the date from which the new tariff would be applied.

Mr Butt said that the arrears of around Rs15 billion claimed by Pesco would not be recovered from the consumers and in future the provincial and federal governments would resolve the issue.