ISLAMABAD: The government delivered a net relief of Rs46.56 billion to electricity consumers in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, slashing industrial power tariffs by nearly 29 percent as part of a broad effort to shield households and factories from global fuel price volatility, the Ministry of Energy said Tuesday.
Consumer-end tariffs fell by Rs0.71 per kilowatt-hour between July and February 2025-26, while industrial pre-tax rates dropped sharply from Rs49.19 per unit (18 U.S. cents) in March 2024 to Rs34.75 per unit (12 cents) by March 2026, a reduction of Rs14.44 per unit that officials called significant for Pakistan’s manufacturing sector. The relief was delivered through two instruments. Fuel Charges Adjustments (FCA) passed on cumulative savings of Rs13.28 billion, while Quarterly Tariff Adjustments (QTA) contributed the larger share at Rs33.29 billion for the July-February period.
January and February alone accounted for Rs26.85 billion of the total relief. The FCA for those two months showed an increase of Rs21.18 billion, driven by higher demand and the forced outage of nuclear plant K-3, but was more than offset by a negative Quarterly Tariff Adjustment of Rs48 billion, producing the net consumer benefit. Officials cautioned that electricity tariff projections remain sensitive to international fuel prices, exchange rates, demand patterns and the generation mix, with global supply disruptions continuing to pressure generation costs. The Power Division described the measures as a key step toward ensuring affordable electricity for both households and industry while sustaining long-term stability in Pakistan’s struggling power sector.
