The
Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power
(Amendment) Bill 2017, to impose up to 3 years imprisonment for wrong billing
Bill to further strengthen NEPRA, Open market competitive regime for energy
exchange being introduced NEPRA to make its own regulations, scope of work to
further widen Bill to amend the Regulations of Generation, Transmission
and Distribution of Electric Power, 1997 (The Regulation of Generation,
Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill 2017) is
brought to further strengthen the Regulator i.e, NEPRA and to introduce open
market for sale and purchase of electricity by creating completion. The
Amendment will enable competitive transactions as new players are being
introduced with energy exchange, electricity traders and electricity supplier’s
regime. At the same time, generation is proposed to be de licensed, with NEPRA
only regulating National Grid connectivity, generation plant design and
industry standards. A generation company will therefore freely sell electricity
to other licensees, except the national grid company. The expected result is
increased energy security and improved service delivery for the end consumer.
For the first time the amendment
will give the NEPRA to make regulations. Many areas of regulation are presently
required to be prescribed through rules, which require Federal Government
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. These
amendments are bound to increase the scope of the regulated sector, an enhanced
regulatory capacity has also been proposed for NEPRA. For example, sector
related qualifications will bind the Federal and the Provincial Governments
while recommending the Chairman and Members of the Authority respectively,
allowing for more technically and legally sound decision making, which in turn
will strengthen NEPRA’s independence. Additionally, NEPRA functionaries will be
indemnified against frivolous legal proceedings for acts done in good faith.
Coupled with strengthened powers of investigation and penalization, NEPRA would
be far better enabled to implement its statutory mandate, leading to greater
transparency, investor confidence and consumer protection in the power markets.
With enhanced powers of enforcement
and broadened regulatory scope, proposals for ensuring accountability of
regulatory decisions have also been included in the amendments. Introduction of
an Appellate Tribunal comprising of 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 one thousand 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, remand the matter back to the Authority
with guidelines.
The Bill also take care of the conflict
of interest by the Members and Chairman of the Authority as well as the
employees, whereby these individuals are to declare their direct and indirect
interests, as well as formally recuse themselves from matters affected in any
way by those interests. The aim of the provision is to guarantee that all staff
and the persons responsible for the regulator's management are totally
independent and impartial in the execution of their powers and duties and are
free from considerations other than the general interests while taking
decisions. The Bill also seeks greater role for NEPRA in terms of acting
against overbilling, excessive billing and wrong billing and its offices will
be established in all Districts to address the public grievances. The Bill
introduce an improvements of up to three years for the employees found involved
in wrong billing Herein lies the basis of the Federal Government proposals to
reform the legislative framework of the power sector along four broad
parameters. The Amendment Bill is introduced by the Federal Government in
pursuance of the the 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 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”.
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