SOMETIMES a person is unaware of the reality that surrounds him in bureaucratic and legalistic terms. I became aware of it when I saw my current Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) bill. My bill showed the measured quantity of over 90 units and the due amount as Rs5,600. To clarify the readings of the bill, I went to the SSGC head office where an official at the billing department told me that if I had consumed 89 units, instead of 90, the bill would have been as low as Rs2,800 and that would have included taxes. This simple maths shows that once you cross the magical boundary of 90 units, you can expect to get ‘rewarded’ with a minimum of double the amount. In fact, if the taxes are excluded, the ‘reward’ would be triple the base amount.

The current SSGC bills show a 12-month billing cycle, and as there is little space available on the bill to include an extra month in the graph, the consumers are unable to compare their current bill with the corresponding month of the preceding year. This graph is present in the bills issued by K-Electric (KE). SSGC management may follow the same pattern.

Muhammad Faiq Aleemuddin
Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2026