Electricity Slab Rates Pakistan 2026-27: Full DISCO Tariff Guide

Pakistani electricity bills are widely misunderstood, and almost all of the confusion comes down to one rule that most online guides and bill calculators state backwards.

Un-protected consumers, which is most households, do not pay progressive slab rates. The rate of the slab your monthly total lands in applies to every unit of that month. The tariff notification says so in a footnote that is repeated word for word on the DISCOs' own published schedules:

> "only protected residential consumers will be given the benefit of one previous slab" > > "residential life line consumer will not be given any slab benefit"

So a household on 500 units is billed 500 x Rs 38.95, every unit, not 100 units at Rs 22.44 then 100 at Rs 28.91 and so on up the table. The difference is not small: the progressive reading gives about Rs 15,986 of energy charge, the correct one gives Rs 19,475.

This guide sets out the February 2026 schedule (S.R.O. 279(I)/2026), what each line on the bill actually costs, and what a bill really comes to at 100, 200, 300, 500, 700 and 1,000 units. Every figure below is computed with the Electricity Bill Calculator Pakistan, whose arithmetic reconciles to the rupee against LESCO's own bill estimator.

The 2026 Residential Tariff, All DISCOs

Domestic rates are uniform nationwide. NEPRA's decision of 12 January 2026 carries an identical A-1 residential table for the ex-WAPDA DISCOs and for K-Electric, so LESCO, IESCO, MEPCO, GEPCO, FESCO, HESCO, SEPCO, PESCO, QESCO, TESCO and K-Electric all bill households at the same per-unit rates.

There are three categories, not two.

Lifeline (up to 100 units, sanctioned load under 5 kW)

No slab benefit. A lifeline household on 80 units pays 80 x Rs 7.74.

Protected (200 units or less, every month, for six consecutive months)

This is the only category entitled to the benefit of one previous slab, so these two rates genuinely are applied progressively. A protected household on 150 units pays 100 x Rs 10.54 plus 50 x Rs 13.01 = Rs 1,705.

Un-protected (everyone else)

No slab benefit at any level.

What a Bill Actually Comes To

Un-protected, 2 kW sanctioned load, filer, with FPA and QTA set to zero so the base is comparable. Add your own FPA and QTA on top.

A non-filer adds 7.5 percent once the bill reaches Rs 25,000, so the 700 unit bill becomes about Rs 42,075 and the 1,000 unit bill about Rs 66,357.

Notice that the energy charge is only around 75 percent of the total. The rest is the fixed charge, the FC surcharge, Electricity Duty, GST and the PTV fee, which is why bills feel higher than the per-unit rate suggests.

The Boundary Effect: One Unit Can Cost Rs 1,350

Because there is no slab benefit, crossing a boundary reprices the entire month.

One extra unit adds Rs 1,354. This is the single highest-value thing to know about a Pakistani electricity bill: in the last few days of a cycle, staying below a boundary is worth more than careful use anywhere else in the range. Our calculators flag a warning when you are within 15 units of one.

Protected Status Is Worth More Than Any Other Saving

The same 200 units, billed two ways:

Identical consumption, 2.2 times the bill. Protected status needs 200 units or less every month for six consecutive months, and it is lost the moment consumption crosses 200 in any single month. If your usage sits in the 180 to 220 range, holding it under 200 for six months is the largest single saving available to a Pakistani household.

Fixed Charges Are Now Billed Per kW

This changed with the 2026 tariff rationalisation and catches people out. The fixed charge is no longer a flat amount per bill; it is charged per kW of your sanctioned load, which is printed on the bill and is typically 1 to 5 kW for a home.

On a 2 kW connection at 500 units that is Rs 500 x 2 = Rs 1,000 a month before any energy is billed. On a 5 kW connection it is Rs 2,500. Consumers with no fixed charge instead pay a minimum monthly charge of Rs 75 (single phase) or Rs 150 (three phase).

FPA and QTA

Two variable line items, and the main reason a bill differs from a slab-only estimate.

FPA (Fuel Price Adjustment, printed as FCA on some bills) is notified monthly and reflects the gap between the actual fuel cost of generation and the reference cost in the base tariff. It can be positive or negative.

QTA (Quarterly Tariff Adjustment, printed as Q-Trf-Adj) is set quarterly and covers capacity payments and DISCO loss adjustments. LESCO's QTA worked out to Rs 1.2489 per unit in August 2026.

Both are printed on your bill. Enter the actual figures into the calculator rather than relying on a default.

Surcharges and Taxes

FC surcharge: Rs 3.23 per unit, Rs 1.43 for protected consumers at or under 200 units. Levied since 1 July 2023 to service power sector debt. This is a large line item: Rs 1,615 on a 500 unit bill.

NJ surcharge: historically Rs 0.10 per unit for the Neelum-Jhelum project, but it is not currently being billed. LESCO's own estimator returns a zero NJS line at every consumption level.

Electricity Duty: 1.5 percent, charged on energy plus FPA and QTA. It is not charged on the FC surcharge. This is a provincial levy so the rate can differ slightly outside Punjab.

GST: 18 percent, charged on energy plus FPA and QTA plus Electricity Duty plus the FC surcharge. It is not charged on the PTV fee.

PTV fee: Rs 35 per month.

Section 235 withholding: a flat 7.5 percent once the bill reaches Rs 25,000, and only for people not on FBR's Active Taxpayer List. There is no higher band above that. Filing a return, even a nil one, removes it entirely, and the tax is adjustable against your annual liability if you do file.

Time of Use

ToU splits the rate into peak and off-peak. The notified figures are Rs 46.85 per unit peak and Rs 34.53 off-peak, a gap of about Rs 12, and ToU carries the Rs 675 per kW fixed charge. Peak windows are 5 PM to 11 PM or 6 PM to 10 PM depending on the DISCO and season.

It requires a dual meter installed through your DISCO SDO office and a voluntary opt-in. It only pays if you can genuinely move heavy loads (geyser, washing machine, dishwasher, a second AC) out of the peak window. If your evening is AC plus cooking plus laundry all overlapping the peak, ToU costs more than the standard tariff.

Five Levers, in Order of What They Save

1. Watch the slab boundary. Worth over Rs 1,350 for a single unit at the 300 mark. Nothing else on this list saves that much for that little effort.
2. File your FBR return. Worth 7.5 percent of the entire bill for a non-filer above Rs 25,000, so roughly Rs 2,935 a month on a 700 unit bill.
3. Get back to protected status if your usage is near 200 units. It more than halves the bill at the same consumption, but it takes six consecutive months.
4. Shift heavy loads off-peak if you are on a ToU meter, worth about Rs 12 per unit moved.
5. Solar with net billing is the structural fix for a consistently high bill. See the Solar Payback Calculator and the Net Metering Calculator.

Calculate Your Own Bill

• Electricity Bill Calculator Pakistan: all 11 DISCOs, all three consumer categories, sanctioned load, FPA and QTA, and a slab-crossing warning that shows what the boundary would cost you.
• LESCO Bill Calculator and K-Electric Bill Calculator for utility-specific pages.
• AC Running Cost Calculator: what your AC costs per month at different thermostat settings.

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Related Guides

• Tax Slabs 2026-27 Pakistan: the FBR salary tax structure, useful context for the Section 235 discussion above.
• Net Metering Pakistan Complete Guide: how solar exports are credited under the 2026 net billing rules.

Sources and Verification

Rates are the applicable variable charges under S.R.O. 279(I)/2026, effective February 2026, as published in the DISCOs' own tariff guides. They are corroborated by S.R.O. 1157(I)/2025 (Ministry of Energy, 1 July 2025, Annex-A-1) and by NEPRA's Decision of the Authority on the Motion of the Federal Government dated 12 January 2026, whose ex-WAPDA DISCO and K-Electric annexes are identical for A-1 residential.

The order of operations and the base of each tax and surcharge were verified against LESCO's own bill estimator, and reconcile to the rupee at 150, 500, 700 and 900 units.

One caveat worth stating plainly: LESCO's estimator currently computes on a lower per-unit figure than the notified schedule (Rs 35.24 against Rs 38.95 on the 401-500 slab, checked 17 August 2026), so a real bill may land under the figures here. We follow the notification because it is the dated, published instrument. Estimates also exclude arrears, instalments, meter rent, late payment surcharge and detection bills.