ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Wednesday notified around 34 paise per unit higher fuel costs for May, putting an additional burden of about Rs4.2 billion on consumers in the July billing.

The net average fuel costs in July would, however, be around 4 paise per unit lower than June as the new Rs0.336 per unit additional FCA in July will replace Rs1.19 per unit FCA in June that has come to an end.

In a notification, Nepra said it “has decided that positive fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for May 2026 i.e. Rs0.3364/kWh…shall be applicable to all the consumer categories of KE and XWDISCOs except lifeline consumers, Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (EVCS) and Pro-paid electricity consumers, of all categories who opted for prepaid tariff.”

The regulator said the higher FCA would also apply to consumers in the incremental consumption package.

Discos and KE are required to reflect the fuel charge adjustment for May in the billing month of July 2026.

Under the tariff mechanism, changes in fuel cost are passed on to consumers only on a monthly basis through automatic mechanism, while quarterly tariff adjustments on account of variation in power purchase price, capacity charges, variable operation and maintenance costs, use of system charges and the impact of transmission and distribution losses are built into the base tariff by the federal government.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2026