• Notifies reduction of Rs2.67 per unit for August, Rs1.89 for September, October
• Voices concern over Rs250bn in unwanted costs to consumers
ISLAMABAD: Expressing serious concern over approximately Rs250 billion in unwanted costs to consumers due to governance failure, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Thursday notified a reduction in electricity rates by Rs2.67 per unit for August and then Rs1.89 per unit for the subsequent two months — September and October — owing to lower fuel costs and capacity payments.
In two separate notifications, the regulator notified a negative fuel cost adjustment (FCA) of 78 paise per unit for ex-Wapda distribution companies (Discos) for the current billing month on account of electricity consumed in June. Effectively, the FCA would be only 28 paise per unit lower because it would replace a 50-paisa negative FCA applicable in July.
Nepra said it has decided that a negative adjustment of Rs0.7772 per unit (kilowatt-hour, or kWh) shall be applicable to all the consumer categories in the billing month of August, except lifeline consumers, protected consumers, Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (EVCS) and pre-paid electricity consumers of all categories.
The power regulator also notified about Rs1.89 per unit negative quarterly tariff adjustment (QTA) for August, September and October on account of lower capacity charges in the last quarter (April-June) of FY25 to refund about Rs55bn overcharged to consumers.
Again, the actual relief would be about 34 paise per unit for the three months, as it would be replacing an earlier QTA of Rs1.55 per unit on account of the third quarter (January-March) of 2025. This negative quarterly tariff adjustment would also be applicable to all Discos, including K-Electric
Overall, the consumers of Discos would be better off by 62 paise per unit in August and then 34 paise in September and October. This relief will also extend to K-Electric customers.
The regulator said it has “decided to allow negative quarterly adjustments of Rs55.874bn pertaining to the fourth quarter of the FY25, in a period of three months, i.e. August 2025 to October 2025, at a uniform rate of negative Rs1.8881per kWh, to be applicable to all consumer categories, except lifeline consumers and prepaid consumers of XWDISCOs”.
Under government policy, the same quarterly adjustments would also be made to the consumers of K-Electric as well, with the same applicability period.
While allowing notifying these relief adjustments, the regulator also expressed serious displeasure over persistent governance failures in the power sector that have led to prolonged outages, delayed project execution and inadequate transmission planning — all of which are directly contributing to rising generation costs and higher monthly FCAs.
In an additional note, Nepra’s technical member, Rafique A. Sheikh, pointed out some of the glaring examples of such inefficiencies and governance problems, including the continued forced outage of Guddu Unit-16 and the prolonged non-operation of the Neelum-Jhelum project.
“The 747MW Guddu unit alone resulted in an additional cost of Rs827m in June 2025, with cumulative losses reaching Rs116.827bn since July 2022. Meanwhile, Neelum-Jhelum remains offline despite Rs75.5bn already recovered from consumers through the dedicated surcharge — further burdening the system,” he wrote.
The regulator’s Sindh member said these issues had been further compounded by the sluggish progress on key national grid initiatives. The Part Load Adjustment Charges (PLAC) reached Rs4.1bn in June and Rs41.2bn for the fiscal year, underscoring the urgent need for better demand planning and improved system reliability.
Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2025