ISLAMABAD: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has protested against the proposed positive quarterly tariff adjustments (QTA) sought by power distribution companies (Discos), arguing that the claims are based on flawed data and that costs should, in fact, have declined.

In a letter to Federal Minister for Power Sardar Awais Leghari and the chairman and members of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), FPCCI Research Team Head Rehan Javed said a select group of consumers was given a benefit of Rs1.53 billion under a cheaper incremental consumption package in December 2025, but this resulted in an additional burden of about Rs6.6bn on consumers nationwide.

He said Discos were claiming a net national quarterly adjustment of Rs10.83bn for the second quarter of FY26 after accounting for capacity charges, transmission and use-of-system charges, variable operation and maintenance costs, the impact of transmission and distribution losses on fuel cost adjustment, and the incremental consumption package.

Under Nepra’s uniform tariff mechanism, this amount would be socialised across about 28.75 billion units of national electricity sales for the quarter, translating into a system-wide impact of around 38 paise per unit. While Disco-wise adjustments ranged from a negative Rs5.1bn to a positive Rs5.6bn, these variations fully offset each other at the national level, leaving the consolidated per unit impact as the only outcome relevant for consumers.

Mr Javed contended that a material portion of the quarterly adjustment did not stem from unavoidable cost variations but arose directly from the defective design of the incremental consumption package. He said the issue had been raised repeatedly in regulatory hearings, written submissions and stakeholder engagements, but continued implementation without correction raised serious concerns about policy responsiveness and governance.

He said system data showed that national electricity demand had remained broadly flat at around 2,400-2,500 gigawatt hours per month from July 2025 onwards. Sales stood at about 2,439 GWh in Nov 2025 and 2,431 GWh in Dec 2025, confirming that no incremental demand had been generated.

Despite this, around 600 GWh in Dec 2025 was billed at a discounted rate of Rs11.02 per unit below the normal tariff, using an outdated reference consumption of about 1,900 GWh from Dec 2023. As a result, base-load consumption was misclassified as incremental, and existing demand was merely repriced at a lower tariff, he said.

While the reported benefit to selected industrial consumers, mainly in B3 and B4 categories, amounted to about Rs1.533bn, the resulting revenue shortfall was estimated at around Rs6.6bn. This shortfall neither reduced capacity payments nor increased system utilisation, nor did it generate additional energy sales, he said, adding that it would instead be passed on through quarterly adjustments and socialised across the entire consumer base, including those who received no benefit from the package.

Mr Javed argued that had this Rs6.6bn revenue loss not occurred and the same energy been sold at the full tariff, the quarterly adjustment would have been lower by about 23 paise per unit. The Q2 adjustment of 38 paise per unit would then have fallen to roughly 15 paise per unit, demonstrating that more than half of the impact was policy-induced.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2026