Govt petitions Nepra for power package to revive industrial, farm demand

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has petitioned the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to approve its Roshan Economy Power Package — a three-year plan offering discounted electricity at Rs22.98 per unit for industrial and agricultural consumers who use more power than last year.

The initiative is aimed at reviving power demand, improving system efficiency, and easing the financial strain of idle generation capacity on the national grid. Nepra will hold a public hearing on November 11 to review the proposal, which the government says will be “subsidy neutral” and effective from November 2025 to October 2028.

Announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on October 23, the package lowers the cost of additional electricity consumption to Rs22.98 per unit, down from the current Rs34 for industries and Rs38 for agriculture. The reduced rate will apply only to incremental units above last year’s consumption levels, while existing tariffs will continue for baseline use.

According to the Energy Ministry’s motion, industrial power demand has fallen 14 percent and agricultural usage by 47 percent over the past three years due to sluggish economic activity, structural adjustments, and increased reliance on net-metering systems, which now total 6,035 megawatts.

The package covers both Time-of-Use and Non-ToU consumers under XW-DISCOs and K-Electric. Positive Fuel Cost Adjustments will apply to eligible users, while Quarterly Tariff Adjustments (QTAs), Debt Service Surcharge (DSS), and negative FCAs will not be applicable on incremental consumption.

If incremental usage in these sectors exceeds 25 percent growth above baseline, the scheme will be reviewed to account for marginal cost variations.

All Captives Power Plants (CPPs) will be considered as new consumers for benchmark consumption calculations. Net-metering users can get the package only if they used more electricity from the grid (imported) than they sent back (exported) during the month, both in peak and off-peak hours. The extra units they used will be counted based only on the net imported electricity (imports minus exports). This extra use will then be divided between peak and off-peak hours according to how much was used in each period.

The Power Division said earlier schemes, including the Industrial Support Package (2020–23) and Bijli Sahulat Package (2024–25) raised industrial power use by up to 14pc, showing targeted incentives can spur productivity and jobs.