ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has increased electricity prices across Pakistan by 75 paisas per unit.
According to the official notification, this hike is on account of the monthly fuel cost adjustment for June and will apply to K-Electric consumers as well.
The increased rates will be reflected in consumers’ electricity bills for the current month of August.
The Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) had initially requested an increase of 1.20 rupees per unit for the June adjustment. Previously, electricity prices were raised by 34 paisas per unit for May’s adjustment.
Electricity Tariff Trends Over the Past Five Years
Over the past five years (2021 to 2026), Pakistan’s electricity tariff structure has undergone a relentless upward spiral, severely burdening consumers and commercial sectors alike.
Driven by a combination of currency devaluation, soaring global fuel and liquefied natural gas (LNG) import costs, aggressive International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural benchmarks, and escalating capacity payments to independent power producers (IPPs), base tariffs and monthly adjustments have surged dramatically.
In 2021 and 2022, compounding global energy shocks pushed generation costs to unprecedented heights, triggering frequent quarterly and monthly fuel adjustments that routinely added multiple rupees per unit.
While subsequent years saw occasional minor reliefs or smaller adjustments, structural inefficiencies—including high transmission losses, circular debt accumulation, and plummeting grid demand due to consumers shifting toward rooftop solar—forced authorities to continuously hike per-unit prices to recover operational costs.
Consequently, electricity tariffs have more than doubled over this five-year window, turning domestic power bills into a major socio-economic crisis and transforming energy affordability into a critical national issue.
