Industrial consumers want the government to order an independent power sector audit and hold off the two-part electricity tariff until the audit is done.
The Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) made the demand in formal letters to the government, protesting against the revised incremental consumption package (ICP) for industry and agriculture. The association says the revised package shifts costs onto all consumers instead of cutting power rates for industry. Dawn reported the demand in its November 9 edition.
The numbers behind the power sector audit demand
The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) set the revised ICP at Rs25.30 per unit on November 6. Yet Nepra’s own estimate put the actual marginal cost at Rs31.83 per unit, or Rs29.65 after the Independent System and Market Operator’s (ISMO) operational tags. The gap between the two figures is being passed on to all consumers through higher monthly fuel cost adjustments (FCAs).
KATI wants one of the country’s big four accounting firms, backed by power-sector modelling experts, to audit the data, the PLEXOS inputs and the processes of the Power Planning and Monitoring Company (PPMC) and ISMO on its own, and to share the findings with Nepra and every stakeholder.
PLEXOS is simulation software used to work out power system costs. KATI argues that the figures fed into it need outside scrutiny before any tariff based on them can stand.
The association also wants the Rs180 billion gap between the average tariff and the package rate closed by bringing the industrial tariff down to Nepra’s cost of service for each voltage level, B1 to B4, instead of collecting the money from ordinary consumers.
KATI president Shaikh Umer Rehan sent the demand in letters to Power Minister Awais Khan Leghari, Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan, retired Gen Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, the prime minister’s special assistant on energy, and Nepra Chairman Waseem Mukhtar. He also asked for any two-part tariff to wait until the modelling is audited and shared, and for a full account of the FCA money collected from consumers under the package.
A package built on a promise
The package was announced last December on the prime minister’s instruction, with a promise that any extra cost it created would stay ring-fenced, and that the gap between the consumer tariff and the package rate would not be passed to any other group of consumers besides the package’s beneficiaries.
Nepra’s November 6 decision, reviewing the package first approved on December 9, 2025 at Rs22.98 a unit, found serious gaps in the data and analysis the Power Division, PPMC and ISMO were supposed to supply.
The review was due after May 31, 2026. Nepra wrote to the ministry on June 16; the ministry sent data on July 29, but it had no marginal-cost analysis in it. On September 9 the ministry asked Nepra to carry out the review itself, and even its October 15 reply failed to give the analysis and recommendations Nepra had asked for, the regulator’s November 6 judgement says.
Nepra then put the marginal cost of electricity at about Rs31.83 a unit, or Rs29.65 once ISMO’s operational tags were applied, compared with Rs22.98 under the December 2025 package.
The decision itself was contested. The Nepra chairman’s casting vote carried it, and two members, Amna Ahmed and Maqsood Anwar Khan, dissented, calling the proposed Rs25.30 rate unjustified.
The Power Division later clarified that Rs25.30 is the revised marginal rate under the package for industrial and agricultural consumers, not the industrial tariff itself. The division said the industrial tariff had been cut by about Rs18.94 per unit, including taxes, since March 2024, and that the average industrial rate in October 2026 stood at Rs34.40 per kilowatt-hour excluding taxes. The Power Division added that the package had covered 6,940 gigawatt-hours of incremental consumption between December 2025 and September 2026, and that the revised rate would apply from the November billing month.
Nepra has already notified a separate Rs2.36 per unit fuel adjustment for November bills, and the regulator’s earlier decision on the package rate is the one that set Rs25.30. For households, the pressure is familiar: salaried workers pay far more tax than the real estate sector, Lahore food prices stay above official rates, and short-term inflation remains high.
What happens next
KATI wants the audit first and the tariff decision after it. The government has not yet responded. If the audit goes ahead, its findings will shape whether the two-part tariff survives. If it does not, households will keep paying for a package that was meant to be ring-fenced.
Frequently asked questions
What are industrialists demanding?
KATI wants an independent third-party audit of power sector data by a big-four accounting firm, and suspension of the two-part electricity tariff until the audit is done.
What is the dispute over the ICP rate?
Nepra set the revised package at Rs25.30 per unit, but its own estimate put the marginal cost at Rs31.83, or Rs29.65 after ISMO tags. KATI says the gap reaches all consumers through fuel cost adjustments.
What is PLEXOS?
PLEXOS is simulation software used to work out power system costs. KATI wants its inputs and the processes of PPMC and ISMO independently audited.
What was the original promise of the package?
When the ICP was approved in December 2025, the commitment was that extra costs would stay ring-fenced and not shift to other consumers.
Was Nepra’s decision unanimous?
No. It was taken through the casting vote of the Nepra chairman, with members Amna Ahmed and Maqsood Anwar Khan dissenting.
