MEPCO Bill Charges Explained — FPA, GST, Duty & Fees

How the total is built

Think of the bill in three layers. At the bottom are the charges for the electricity itself: energy charges for your units, a fixed charge for your connection, and the monthly fuel adjustment. On top of those sit the government taxes and fees — GST, electricity duty and the TV fee — which are calculated from the layer below. Finally, anything carried over from earlier months, such as arrears or credits, is added or subtracted before the payable total is printed.

This guide explains each charge on its own. If you first want the map of where everything sits on the printed bill, read how to read your MEPCO bill, then come back here for the detail behind each line.

All the charges at a glance

Each charge is explained in full in the sections below, with the reasons it changes from month to month.

Energy charges

What it is: the cost of the electricity you actually consumed — the largest part of most bills. How it is calculated: your units for the month multiplied by the per-unit rate of your slab under the current tariff. Why it changes: because both halves of that multiplication move — your usage changes with the weather and your appliances, and the applicable rate changes the moment your total crosses into a different slab.

The slab rule works differently by category. Protected consumers (homes that have stayed at or below 200 units for six months) keep the benefit of the cheaper first slab, paying the lower rate on their first 100 units and the next rate only on the units above it. Unprotected consumers get no slab benefit: once their total lands in a slab, every unit is charged at that slab's higher rate, which is why crossing 200 units stings so much. The full rate table is in the tariff 2026 guide, and you can test your own units in the bill calculator.

Fixed charges

What it is: a monthly charge for having the connection at all — it covers part of the standing cost of the network, metering and billing, regardless of how much electricity flows through it. How it is calculated: a rate per kW, set by your slab, multiplied by the sanctioned load printed on your bill. A home with a 3 kW sanctioned load pays three times the per-kW figure, every month.

Why it matters: because it is charged even at zero consumption, a zero-unit bill is never zero — the fixed charge, plus the monthly fees and the tax on them, still has to be paid. It also means an unnecessarily large sanctioned load quietly raises every bill you receive. Lifeline consumers are the exception and pay no fixed charge.

Fuel Price Adjustment (FPA)

What it is: the difference between the fuel cost assumed in the base tariff and what it actually cost to generate electricity in a given month. Power stations burn furnace oil, gas and coal whose prices move constantly, and this line passes that movement through to consumers. Who sets it: NEPRA determines the FPA every month after hearing the generation companies, and it is then applied to bills, typically a couple of months after the fuel was consumed.

How it is calculated: a single per-unit rate for the month, multiplied by the units you consumed. Why it changes: because fuel prices, the generation mix and the exchange rate change every month — and because the adjustment is a true-up, it can be negative in months when fuel turned out cheaper than assumed, reducing your bill instead of raising it. This is also why last month's FPA differs from this month's even when your usage is identical: the two bills are settling two different months of fuel costs.

GST (sales tax)

What it is: the general sales tax collected by the government on your electricity supply. How it is calculated: 18% of your energy charges plus fixed charges plus FPA — in other words, 18% of almost the whole electricity layer of the bill. Why it changes: GST has no life of its own; it simply follows the amounts underneath it. When your units rise, or FPA rises, the GST line rises in exact proportion, which is why it is usually the largest tax line on the bill.

Electricity duty

What it is: a provincial duty on electricity consumption, collected through the bill on behalf of the provincial government. How it is calculated: 1.5% of the cost of the electricity you consumed. Why it changes: like GST, it is a percentage, so it grows and shrinks with your energy charges. On a typical home bill it is a small line — easy to overlook, but present on essentially every bill.

TV fee

What it is: a flat fee for Pakistan Television collected through electricity bills, one of the oldest lines on the bill. How it is calculated: a fixed Rs 35 per month — it does not depend on your units, your slab or whether you watch PTV at all. Why it changes: it essentially doesn't; if it appears or disappears, it is usually because of a change in how the connection is classified or metered, not because of anything you used.

Meter rent

What it is: a small monthly rent for the meter itself, which appears on some connections where it applies — for example where the meter remains the distribution company's property under the terms of that connection. How it is calculated: a small flat monthly amount rather than a percentage, so it stays the same while everything around it moves. If your bill has never shown a meter rent line, there is nothing missing: many connections simply do not carry one.

Quarterly & tariff adjustments

Besides the monthly FPA, NEPRA's tariff framework allows other cost differences to be recovered through periodic adjustments, which are notified and then appear on bills as separate lines — commonly labelled as a quarterly adjustment or tariff adjustment. How they work: an approved per-unit or lump amount is spread across bills for a set period, then the line disappears again. Why they change: each notification has its own period and rate, so treat any new adjustment line as temporary, and expect the total to step down when it expires.

Arrears & credits

Arrears are unpaid amounts from earlier bills that are carried forward and added to the current bill — the current month is never billed twice, but the old balance travels with it until it is settled. This is why a bill can look high in a month of modest usage: part of the total belongs to a previous month. If the amount is genuinely difficult to clear at once, see whether the bill installments route applies to you before the balance grows further.

Credits work in the opposite direction. An overpayment, or a correction made in your favour — for example after a wrong reading is fixed — is shown as a credit or adjustment that reduces what you owe. Always check this area of the bill after disputing a charge: a successful correction usually appears here first.

Late payment surcharge

What it is: the penalty added when a bill is paid after its due date. How it works: the bill itself prints both totals — the amount payable within the due date and the higher amount payable after it — so the cost of paying late is visible before you decide. The surcharge is calculated on the unpaid bill amount, and paying part of the bill late does not avoid it on the part that was late. The cheapest line on any bill is the one you never incur: pay the within-due-date figure, before the date printed beside it.

A worked example

Example only — the figures below use round numbers to show how the lines stack; your own bill will use the FPA and rates of its month. Take an unprotected home that used 250 units, with a sanctioned load of 2 kW, in a month when the example FPA is Rs 2.00 per unit:

Notice how much of the total is added after the energy charges: in this example the electricity itself is Rs 8,275 of an Rs 11,340 bill. Run your own units through the bill calculator to see the same stack for your home — and if a line on your real bill still does not add up after this guide, work through the wrong bill steps before paying it.

Common questions