Nepra increases power cost by 52 paisas per unit

The government on Monday approved an increase of Rs0.5194 per unit in electricity tariffs, placing an additional burden of approximately Rs12.6 billion on power consumers.

The increase will apply to all consumer categories except lifeline consumers, units billed under the Incremental Consumption Package, and prepaid consumers.

The positive quarterly adjustment will be recovered over three months — September, October and November — at a uniform rate of Rs0.5194 per kWh.

During the hearing, it was suggested that the per-unit impact of the Rs33 billion quarterly adjustment requested by distribution companies (DISCOs) be spread over four months, from September to December 2026, instead of three months.

The authority, however, noted that Nepra had worked out an adjustment of around Rs12 billion, considerably lower than the amount sought by DISCOs. It therefore decided to retain the three-month recovery period.

The regulator also decided to extend the quarterly adjustment to K-Electric consumers for the same period. Accordingly, K-Electric consumers will also be charged Rs0.5194 per kWh, with the same exemptions for lifeline, Incremental Consumption Package and prepaid consumers.

Nepra directed all DISCOs to submit their quarterly adjustment requests immediately after the close of each quarter to ensure timely processing.

The distribution companies were also directed to provide category-wise details of increases or decreases in sales for each quarter compared with reference sales and actual sales during the corresponding period of the previous year.

For industrial consumers, the information must be provided separately for B1, B2, B3 and B4 categories.

The authority directed that future hearings include an analysis of sales and maximum demand indicator variances and their impact on quarterly adjustment amounts to provide a clearer understanding of the data.