Domestic tariff has two parallel tracks: A-1a (protected) and A-1b (unprotected). Your tariff code on the bill — printed near the consumer name — tells you which one you are on. Protected requires Cross Subsidy registration; unprotected is the default.

Within each track, the slabs are telescopic up to 700 units: the first 100 units are billed at the 0-100 rate, the next 100 at the 101-200 rate, and so on. Above 700 units the tariff becomes non-telescopic — every unit consumed in the cycle is billed at the highest slab rate, not graduated. This jump at 700 is the single most-misunderstood rule in Pakistani residential tariffs and is the reason many high-consumption households see disproportionate bill spikes.

Commercial (A-2) and industrial (B) tariffs are non-telescopic by design — every unit is priced at the slab the monthly total lands in. Be aware of this when crossing slab thresholds.

Available only to consumers registered on the Cross Subsidy Program at css.pitc.com.pk. Requires a six-month rolling average at or below 200 units/month, an A-1 domestic tariff classification, and only one live connection per CNIC nationally.

Two micro-bands within protected: 0-100 units and 101-200 units. The fixed charge is waived. The FPA pass-through is often softer for protected slabs depending on the monthly NEPRA notification.

Once registered, the protected status is dynamic: every cycle PITC re-evaluates your rolling average. A single 250-unit month does not remove you (one spike against five low months still averages below 200), but two consecutive high months will push your average over and the subsidy pauses.

The default for any household without a CSS registration or with average above 200 units/month. Six slabs: 1-100, 101-200, 201-300, 301-400, 401-500, 501-700, and above-700.

The protected vs unprotected delta at the 0-100 slab is meaningful — protected at Rs 7.74/unit vs unprotected at Rs 16.48/unit means the same 100 units cost Rs 774 protected and Rs 1,648 unprotected. Across a year of 100-unit months that is a Rs 10,488 saving — easily worth the 2-minute CSS registration.

The non-telescopic jump above 700 units is the kicker. A household consuming 699 units pays Rs 32.03/unit on the 301-700 portion (398 units at that rate); a household consuming 701 units pays Rs 35.24 on all 701 units. Crossing this line carries a Rs 1,500-2,500 step-up in the bill that does not show up in any slab arithmetic — plan summer AC use accordingly.

ToU is mandatory for HT and EHT industrial connections (B-3, B-4). Optional for residential consumers with a smart meter — and given MEPCO's RDSS smart-meter rollout is at ~600,000 meters and growing, more residential consumers are eligible every month.

Two periods: peak (6 PM-10 PM in winter, 7 PM-11 PM in summer) and off-peak (the rest of the day). Peak units are priced higher; off-peak lower. The breakeven depends on your daily load profile — households with heavy evening AC use rarely save on ToU; households whose washing machine and water pump run at night usually do.

FPA is a monthly pass-through that compensates for changes in the cost of generation between when NEPRA set the base tariff and when the bill is issued. NEPRA notifies the FPA on the 15th of each month, retrospectively for the month two months prior. So the FPA appearing on your May bill is the FPA for March consumption, calculated against March fuel costs.

FPA can be positive or negative. In the high-FPA quarters of 2022-2023 it added Rs 4-7 per unit; in the low-FPA quarters of 2024 it was sometimes negative (a small refund). The annualised FPA is the single largest variable in residential bill spikes.

FPA can be disputed only on arithmetic grounds — NEPRA's formula is approved and not appealable at the consumer level. If the FPA on your bill does not match the per-unit FPA × your units consumed, file a complaint at step 1 (SDO).

QTR is a quarterly true-up notification by NEPRA, reconciling the previous quarter's actual generation cost against the tariff. Like FPA but lumpier; some quarters QTR is positive, others negative.

QTR typically appears on bills for 1-3 months after each notification. Read the QTR line carefully — it is the line where bill amounts can swing sharply month-to-month even with stable consumption.

Punjab Electricity Duty is 1.5% of the energy charge. Sindh, KPK, and Balochistan apply different rates. The duty is a provincial-government levy independent of the federal tariff.

GST is 17% federally (18% on commercial in some districts). The base is the bill total before income tax and electricity duty.

TV Fee is a flat Rs 35 per residential connection, regardless of consumption. The PTV licence cannot be opted out.

Income Tax withholding is 7.5% for unregistered consumers, 0% for filers. The single largest reason for non-filers to consider filing a tax return is the 7.5% withholding on electricity bills — for a household with a Rs 300,000 annual electricity spend, filing saves Rs 22,500/year.

Financing Cost Surcharge (FC) is currently around Rs 0.43 per unit and funds repayment of the power sector's circular debt. Applied uniformly.