The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority has approved a Rs2.37 per unit fuel adjustment for November electricity bills, trimming the Rs2.56 per unit the power purchaser asked for. In a second decision the same week, it raised the discounted industrial rate to Rs25.30 per unit on a split vote. Together they put about Rs25 billion of extra fuel cost on November bills and narrow industry’s discount, while the industrial rate still sits below the cost of supply.
What NEPRA approved
NEPRA approved a fuel charges adjustment of Rs2.3673 per unit for September 2026, to be recovered through bills issued in November, Geo News reported on 7 November. The decision appeared on the regulator’s website on 6 November, with a formal notification on 7 November. The charge applies to consumers of the former WAPDA distribution companies and, under the uniform tariff policy, to K-Electric consumers as well, including those on the Incremental Consumption Package. Lifeline consumers, electric vehicle charging stations and prepaid users are exempt. The Central Power Purchasing Agency-Guarantee had asked for Rs2.5624 per unit. Distribution companies are expected to recover about Rs25 billion through the adjustment, Profit reported. September’s numbers explain the charge: actual fuel cost was Rs9.82 per unit against a Rs7.45 reference, a gap of exactly Rs2.37.
The trim, in rupees
NEPRA cut Rs0.1951 per unit off the request, a trim of 7.6 percent. Had the full request been approved, the recovery would have been about Rs27.06 billion at the same billed volume, so the trim saves consumers roughly Rs2.06 billion. Before taxes and fixed charges, a household pays about Rs473 extra on 200 units, about Rs710 on 300 units, and about Rs1,184 on 500 units. It is also more than double the last one: the August adjustment of Rs1.11 per unit appeared on October bills, so November’s Rs2.37 is 2.13 times as large. It is a one-month charge tied to September’s fuel costs, not a change to the base tariff.
The second decision: industry pays more
Separately, NEPRA raised the rate for additional consumption under the Incremental Consumption Package to Rs25.30 per unit from Rs22.98, an increase of Rs2.32 per unit, or 10.1 percent, effective from the November billing cycle. NEPRA forwarded the decision to the federal government. The package, the Roshan Economy Power Package announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in October 2025 and running from November 2025 to October 2028, prices electricity used above a consumer’s earlier baseline at a discount. Geo News reported relief of Rs11 to Rs15 per unit on those units, against base tariffs of about Rs34 for industry and about Rs38 for agriculture. Against the roughly Rs34 industry base, the relief on each extra unit falls from about Rs11.02 to about Rs8.70 after the increase.
A 2-2 vote, and a number the regulator calculated itself
Chairman Waseem Mukhtar’s casting vote carried the industrial decision after a 2-2 split, Profit reported. Amina Ahmed, the member for tariff and finance, and Maqsood Anwar Khan, the member for development, opposed the increase. The dissenters said the Rs25.30 rate was not supported by the data submitted, and pointed to NEPRA’s own calculation of Rs31.83 per unit as the marginal cost of supplying additional electricity. They urged suspending the package until the Ministry of Energy supplied verified cost figures, warning the shortfall lands on other consumers through fuel and quarterly adjustments. All four members criticised the Power Division’s incomplete calculations. NEPRA named the Independent System and Market Operator and the Power Planning and Monitoring Company as not having supplied the required marginal cost data, set deadlines for it, and warned it could suspend or end the package. At Rs25.30, the package rate is Rs6.53 per unit below the Rs31.83 marginal cost, or 20.5 percent below it, and the increase closed only about 26 percent of the old gap of Rs8.85 per unit.
How the two decisions meet on one bill
One recovers past fuel costs from all consumers, while the other sets a forward price for extra industrial use that may generate future recoveries. November bills now carry the confirmed fuel charge of Rs2.37 per unit, and NEPRA’s Rs23.3bn quarterly adjustment request is still pending after the hearing on 17 November. The approved figure came in below the Rs2.56 fuel adjustment lined up for November bills. Three things will settle the story. First, whether the Power Division meets the new deadlines for the missing cost data, for the two review periods. Second, whether NEPRA carries out its warning to suspend the package if the data does not arrive. Third, what the 17 November hearing decides on the quarterly adjustment, which would land on top of the fuel charge already confirmed. The USD to PKR exchange rate today also feeds into fuel costs. More business and economy news from Pakistan is on PakMirror’s business pages.
