Your Electricity Bill Could Go Up by Rs 2.52 a Unit Next Week. Here’s the Hearing You Should Be Watching

NEPRA has scheduled a hearing for 27 August on a request from the Central Power Purchasing Agency to raise the electricity tariff by Rs 2.52 per unit. If approved, the increase would add an extra Rs 41 billion, including GST, to consumer bills. Every household that uses a unit of grid power will feel it on the next bill cycle after the order is issued.

What is actually being asked for

The Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) — the federal body that buys electricity from power producers and sells it on to the distribution companies — has filed an application with NEPRA asking for a Rs 2.52 per unit increase in the consumer tariff. The increase would be applied under the fuel price adjustment (FCA) mechanism, which is the quarterly pass-through that lets power companies recover the cost of fuel used to generate electricity.

This is the FCA for July 2026, which was supposed to be billed to consumers in the September or October bills. CPPA filed the application on Monday, and NEPRA has now formally scheduled the public hearing for 27 August 2026. If the regulator clears the request, the increase flows through to consumer bills within weeks.

Why electricity got more expensive to make in July

The CPPA application is unusually detailed. It breaks down the fuel mix that ran Pakistan’s power plants in July, and the picture is the same one households have been seeing all summer: expensive imported fuel doing more of the work, cheaper hydropower and local coal doing less.

In July 2026, just under 11% of the country’s electricity was generated from imported LNG, at a fuel cost of about Rs 47.37 per unit — the most expensive generation source in the mix. Furnace oil added another 1.4% of the generation, at a fuel cost of around Rs 50.07 per unit. Diesel-fired generation, although small in volume, ran at Rs 54.47 per unit. The remainder came from hydropower (39.8%), local coal (10.9%), imported coal (14.4%) and nuclear (10.1%) — the cheaper sources, but the imported-fuel share was still large enough to drag the average up.

That is the underlying cause of the Rs 2.52 increase. When LNG and furnace oil get more expensive or do more of the work, the FCA moves up. When hydropower does more of the work, the FCA moves down or stays flat. The past two months have been on the wrong side of that balance.

What Rs 2.52 per unit actually means in money

For a household that uses 300 units a month, the increase adds Rs 756 to the bill, before GST. With GST layered on, the actual addition is closer to Rs 900. For a household using 500 units, the addition is Rs 1,260 before GST, and around Rs 1,500 with tax. For small businesses running air-conditioning, refrigeration, or welding equipment, the math is much more painful.

Across the country, the additional burden is estimated at Rs 41 billion per month, including GST. That is the size of the move being asked for, and the size of the political fight that is likely to follow if NEPRA clears it in full.

What happens at the 27 August hearing

NEPRA’s public hearing is the formal step where the regulator hears from the CPPA, the distribution companies, and any consumer-side interveners before deciding on the FCA. The typical sequence is:

1. CPPA presents the case. The agency explains the July generation mix, the fuel costs, and why the tariff needs to move up by Rs 2.52.
2. Distribution companies respond. The DISCOs (IESCO, LESCO, FESCO, GEPCO, MEPCO, PESCO, HESCO, QESCO, SEPCO) confirm whether the request is technically in order.
3. Interveners make their case. Consumer groups, industry associations, and any individual or organisation that has filed objections can argue against the full increase or parts of it.
4. NEPRA deliberates and issues an order. The regulator can approve the full Rs 2.52, approve a smaller amount, or reject the application entirely. The order is usually issued within days of the hearing.

Past FCA hearings have sometimes resulted in partial approvals, especially when the regulator believes some of the cost is the result of inefficiency rather than fuel-price movement. There is no guarantee that this Rs 2.52 lands at exactly Rs 2.52 in the final order.

The political backdrop

The hearing lands at a sensitive moment. The federal government is already under fire from the Jamaat-e-Islami protest movement, now in its third day, which is demanding a cut in the petroleum levy and an end to inflation. The goods transporters’ strike was paused last week on the government’s promise of a more stable fuel-pricing cycle. Adding Rs 41 billion in electricity costs to household budgets in the same week is unlikely to go down quietly.

That political context does not change the FCA mechanics, but it does affect how the final number is likely to be communicated and how the recovery is phased. Past governments have occasionally split an FCA increase across two billing cycles to soften the headline impact, even when the recovery itself is the same.

Why the FCA keeps coming back

Pakistan’s power sector has a structural problem: it has more generation capacity than the grid can absorb, and a large share of that capacity is run on imported fuel. The FCA was designed to recover fuel costs from consumers in real time, so the government does not have to keep subsidising the difference. The mechanism is supposed to be automatic, and in the long run it should encourage more hydropower, more local coal, and less reliance on LNG.

Until that mix shifts, however, every time LNG and furnace oil prices rise, the FCA moves up too. That is what households are seeing now, and that is the reason the Rs 2.52 increase is being asked for.

What you can do before the next bill

1. Check your July units. The bigger your July consumption, the larger the absolute increase on the bill that follows the FCA order.
2. Look at your current slab. Households in higher slabs (over 700 units a month) are already paying a protective tariff, but a flat Rs 2.52 increase on top of the slab is still Rs 2.52 per unit.
3. Reduce peak-hour use if you can. Air-conditioning, washing machines and water heaters between 6pm and 10pm are the single largest cost driver for most households. Shifting some of that load to off-peak hours cuts your July units, which in turn cuts the next FCA’s impact on you.
4. Watch the NEPRA order, not the headlines. The final number can be lower than Rs 2.52 if NEPRA finds inefficiency in the generation mix. The order usually follows within a week of the hearing.
5. Prepare for a possible second FCA in October. The August FCA is also due, and if August had hot weather and high LNG use, that adjustment will land in November bills.

What this means alongside the petrol hike

From 18 August, petrol is Rs 331.20 per litre and HSD is Rs 390.42 per litre, both up sharply. If NEPRA clears the Rs 2.52 increase on 27 August, electricity bills go up too. Most household budgets do not have a buffer for both at the same time, and the practical order for a lot of families will be to cut discretionary transport or discretionary electricity use to keep the total manageable.

For the broader economy, the combination is a quiet but real squeeze. Transport costs push up the price of goods that arrive in cities by road, and electricity costs push up the cost of producing them. The visible number on the next month of bills will be larger than the visible number at the pump, and that is the part that will hurt most.