FESCO, GEPCO and IESCO to be privatised in early 2027; HESCO and SEPCO next, then LESCO, MEPCO, PESCO

Pakistan now plans to sell its first three power distribution companies, Faisalabad (FESCO), Gujranwala (GEPCO) and Islamabad (IESCO), in the first quarter of 2027, the Prime Minister's Adviser on Privatisation, Muhammad Ali, said on Saturday. Bidding had been planned for December, but investors asked for more time to study the deals, according to a Privatisation Commission press release reported by Business Recorder.

The timetable

Due diligence on the first three is already under way, the adviser said.

What buyers will be asked to do

• Cut losses and theft and improve bill recovery, with smart meters and better load management.
• Keep power on: uninterrupted supply is one of the targets.
• Penalties and rewards: investors that miss performance benchmarks will be penalised, and part of the gain from lower losses is to be passed to consumers.
• Fixed rules before bidding: investment plans and multi-year tariffs will be settled before bids, to answer investors who point to the disputes over K-Electric's tariffs.

The commission has written a reform paper on tariffs, investment and a competitive electricity market, and plans to publish the proposals by mid-November after consulting the Prime Minister and the steering committee. Muhammad Ali also said the government wants to move gradually away from a single national tariff, and called power reform a matter of national security because high prices are pushing industry off the grid.

What it means for your bill

Nothing changes this winter. Tariffs are still set by NEPRA, and the uniform tariff means a household in Faisalabad pays the same base rate per unit as one in Lahore or Multan. If the uniform tariff is phased out after the sales, bills in areas where a company has high losses could diverge from those where it has low ones. That is the part to watch when the reform paper is published.

Check what your current bill should be with our electricity bill calculator, and see how senators and the provinces have argued over the sales earlier this month.