State can't afford 70% electricity discount: minister

• Ministry says will try to restructure power sector's debt to bring down rates.
• No fiscal space for further subsidies, says Awais Leghari.
• Energy minister stresses increasing fixed rates, slash per unit cost.

In the midst of a booming trend in which masses are turning to solar energy, Federal Minister for Energy (Power Division) Awais Leghari has said that the number of consumers using less than 200 units of electricity has increased from 9 million to 21 million.

"Affluent individuals make their way into the list of consumers using less than 200 units by installing solar systems. It is not up to the state to give a 70% discount on electricity prices to such a large segment," said Leghari while speaking to Geo News programme "Naya Pakistan" on Sunday.

Speaking on the power rates, he said that the country's industrial power rate has come close to other countries in the region and that the claims of six to seven US cents per unit of electricity in Bangladesh were wrong.

"We will try to restructure the power sector's debt in order to bring down the electricity rates overall and not just for industries," he remarked.

Noting that there was no fiscal space for further subsidies, the minister said that the government can rationalise the issue by changing the tariff structure, i.e., increasing the fixed rates and reducing the per unit cost.

The minister's statement comes days after the federal government rolled out relief measures for the industries, announcing a Rs4.04 per unit reduction in electricity tariff while also reducing the export refinance scheme rate from the current 7.5% to 4.5% to provide immediate relief to businesses and accelerate export-led growth.

Separately, the Centre has proposed a downward revision of up to Rs1.53 per unit in the base electricity tariff for some domestic power consumers, while recommending higher fixed monthly charges for certain protected and unprotected households, according to a motion filed with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra).

Under the proposal, protected consumers using 51–200 units would face fixed charges of Rs200–300 per month, while unprotected consumers consuming up to 600 units could see up to 100% increases in fixed charges, with monthly rates rising from Rs200 to Rs675 depending on consumption. Conversely, households consuming 601–700 units and above 700 units would see fixed charges reduced from Rs800–1000 to Rs675 per month.

The government also proposed reductions in base tariffs for higher-usage unprotected consumers. For 301–400 units consumption, a drop of Rs1.53 per unit to Rs36.46 is proposed; for 401–500 units, Rs1.27 to Rs38.95 and for 501–600 units, a cut of Rs1.40 to Rs40.22 has been suggested.

Similarly, for 601–700 units, Rs0.91 per unit cut to Rs41.85; and above 700 units, Rs0.49 to Rs47.20 per unit has been proposed.

Lower-usage unprotected consumers (1–300 units) and lifeline protected consumers would see tariffs largely unchanged, ranging from Rs3.95 to Rs33.10 per unit depending on usage.

Nepra will hold a public hearing on February 10 (tomorrow), 2026, allowing stakeholders and consumers to comment on the proposed tariff adjustments.

Meanwhile, responding to a question pertaining to the issue of transition to gross metering/net billing from the existing net metering, Leghari said that a consumer utilising solar net metering uses all of the electricity produced by him and doesn't export then he’ll be able to recover his cost/investment — within 18 months, provided that the proposed regulations come into effect.

Whereas, a solar net metering user who uses 40% of the electricity produced by him and exports the rate, he too will be able to recover his cost in up to three and a half years in case of the new proposed regulations, he added.

Comparatively, he noted, under the prevailing regulations with a buyback rate of Rs27 per unit for net metering and not net billing, than a consumer can recover his investment within around 18 months — nearly doubling the period of recovery for consumers exporting electricity units.