Electricity: CPPA seeks Rs 1.73 a unit more for August, a Rs 29.5bn bill

The Central Power Purchasing Agency has asked NEPRA to let distribution companies charge an extra Rs 1.73 per unit for August 2026 under the monthly fuel charges adjustment. If it is approved in full, consumers pay an additional Rs 29.5 billion.

NEPRA has set the hearing for 29 September. The adjustment, once notified, normally lands on the following month's bills.

The numbers behind the request

CPPA told the regulator that 14.464 billion units were delivered to the distribution companies in August, and that the fuel cost of electricity supplied to them worked out at Rs 8.82 per unit for the month. The gap between that actual cost and the fuel cost already built into your tariff is what the Rs 1.73 is meant to close.

Fuel charges adjustments move every month, in both directions. NEPRA notified a 75 paisa per unit increase for the August billing cycle earlier, so this is a second, larger claim on top of an already rising base.

What Rs 1.73 does to your bill

The arithmetic is simple, because the FCA is charged flat on units consumed, not on slabs.

• A household using 200 units a month pays about Rs 346 more.
• 300 units: about Rs 519 more.
• 500 units: about Rs 865 more.
• 700 units, common for a house running two air conditioners in September: about Rs 1,211 more.

Add general sales tax at 18 per cent on top of that and a 500-unit house is looking at roughly Rs 1,021 in total, not Rs 865.

Work out your own number on our electricity bill calculator, and if the air conditioner is the reason your units climbed, the AC running cost calculator will show you what each hour costs.

Who pays it

Fuel charges adjustments apply to consumers of the DISCOs and, once NEPRA notifies it, to K-Electric consumers in Karachi as well, through a separate but parallel determination. Lifeline consumers and, in most past determinations, domestic consumers using up to 300 units a month have been kept out of FCA recovery. NEPRA decides that at the hearing, so treat the exemption as likely rather than certain until the notification is out.

What to do before 29 September

Nothing is charged yet. This is a request, and NEPRA has cut CPPA's asks before. The useful move is to get September's consumption down while the meter is still running: the FCA is charged per unit, so every unit you do not burn this month is a unit you do not pay Rs 1.73 extra on later.

If you are already on the edge of a slab, check where you stand with the electricity units calculator. Crossing from 300 to 301 units costs far more than Rs 1.73.

We will record the notified number on our electricity data page the day NEPRA issues it.