IESCO Tariff 2026 Complete Guide to Rates, Slabs, Peak Hours and Bill Charges
If you’ve ever stared at your IESCO bill wondering why the per-unit rate keeps shifting or why your neighbor with a similar-sized house pays half what you do, you’re not alone. Electricity tariffs in Pakistan look simple on paper, a table of numbers but the rules behind those numbers decide whether you pay Rs. 8 or Rs. 47 for the exact same unit of power.
Current IESCO Tariff Rates (A-1 Residential)
Residential billing in Pakistan splits into two very different worlds: protected and unprotected consumers. The split decides almost everything about what you pay.
Protected Consumers (Sanctioned Load up to 5 kW)
| Units Consumed | Rate (Rs./kWh) |
| 0–50 (Life Line) | 3.95 |
| 1–100 (Life Line) | 7.74 |
| 1–100 | 10.54 |
| 101–200 | 13.01 |
Protected status isn’t just about being a low-income household label NEPRA defines it by actual consumption history. If your average monthly usage across the last 12 months stays under 200 units and your sanctioned load is 5 kW or less you qualify.
Non-Protected Consumers (Sanctioned Load up to 5 kW)
| Units Consumed | Rate (Rs./kWh) |
| 1–100 | 22.44 |
| 101–200 | 28.91 |
| 201–300 | 33.10 |
| 301–400 | 36.46 |
| 401–500 | 38.95 |
| 501–600 | 40.22 |
| 601–700 | 41.85 |
| Above 700 | 47.20 |
Notice the jump between protected and non-protected rates for the same 1–100 unit slab: Rs. 10.54 versus Rs. 22.44 more than double. This is the single biggest reason two households with similar usage can see wildly different bills.
Time of Use (5 kW Sanctioned Load and Above)
| Period | Rate (Rs./kWh) |
| Peak | 46.85 |
| Off-Peak | 34.53 |
Pre-Paid Residential Tariff
Rs. 42.12/kWh flat no slabs, since pre-paid meters bill per unit consumed in real time rather than monthly cycles.
Fixed Monthly Charges (All Residential Connections)
- Single-phase connection: Rs. 75/month
- Three-phase connection: Rs. 150/month
This charge applies even in months with zero consumption but only on connections billed without the Rs/kW fixed-charge structure. If your tariff slab already carries a per-kW fixed charge, this flat minimum doesn’t stack on top of it.
How Fixed Charges Actually Get Calculated for ToU Meters
This part trips up a lot of people. For Time of Use residential and commercial connections, the fixed charge isn’t simply based on your sanctioned load; it’s based on 50% of your sanctioned load, or your Maximum Demand Indicator (MDI) for that month, whichever is higher. If your meter hasn’t recorded an MDI reading yet, billing falls back to the 50% of-sanctioned-load figure until actual demand data becomes available.
A-2: Commercial Tariff
| Category | Fixed Charge | Rate (Rs./kWh) |
| Up to 5 kW | Rs. 1,000/month | 37.44 |
| 5 kW and above | Rs. 1,250/kW/month | 39.76 |
| Time of Use – Peak | Rs. 1,250/kW/month | 43.82 |
| Time of Use – Off-Peak | Rs. 1,250/kW/month | 35.15 |
| EV Charging Station | — | 23.57 |
| Pre-paid Commercial | Rs. 1,250/kW/month | 42.38 |
For commercial connections, the Rs/kW fixed charge is billed on 25% of sanctioned load or actual MDI, whichever is higher a different formula from residential ToU.
B: Industrial Tariff
| Category | Fixed Charge | Rate (Rs./kWh) |
| Up to 25 kW (400/230V) | Rs. 1,000/month | 26.23 |
| 25–500 kW (400V) | Rs. 1,250/kW/month | 26.16 |
| Up to 25 kW – ToU Peak/Off-Peak | Rs. 1,000/month | 35.74 / 25.48 |
| 25–500 kW – ToU Peak/Off-Peak | Rs. 1,250/kW/month | 35.68 / 22.83 |
| Up to 5,000 kW (11/33 kV) | Rs. 1,250/kW/month | 35.68 / 23.67 |
| 66 kV & above | Rs. 1,250/kW/month | 35.68 / 23.38 |
| Pre-paid Industrial | Rs. 1,250/kW/month | 35.72 |
D: Agriculture Tariff
| Category | Rate (Rs./kWh) |
| SCARP under 5 kW | 39.87 |
| Agricultural Tube Wells | 28.90 |
| SCARP 5kW+ Peak/Off-Peak | 42.79 / 34.71 |
| Agricultural 5kW+ Peak/Off-Peak | 29.54 / 28.69 |
| Pre-paid Agri | 33.15 |
Agricultural connections carry a minimum monthly charge of Rs. 2,000 per consumer even with zero consumption significantly higher than the residential minimum, since tube well connections are billed as commercial-scale infrastructure regardless of actual seasonal usage.
Other Categories at a Glance
| Tariff | Rate (Rs./kWh) |
| General Services (A-3) | 42.48 |
| Temporary Residential (E-1) | 52.89 |
| Temporary Commercial (E-1) | 53.44 |
| Temporary Industrial (E-2) | 42.25 |
| Street Lighting (G) | 42.91 |
| Residential Colonies in Industrial Premises (H) | 42.10 |
| AJK Special Contract (K) | 26.45 |
Seasonal Industrial (Tariff F) is billed at 125% of the equivalent regular industrial rate but the option to switch between seasonal and regular status can only be exercised at connection time or season start and once chosen, it locks in for a minimum of one year.
IESCO Peak Hours by Season 2026
Time of Use rates only matter if you actually know when “peak” starts. IESCO splits the year into four windows:
- Summer (Jun–Aug): 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM
- Spring (Mar–May): 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
- Autumn (Sep–Nov): 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
- Winter (Dec–Feb): 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Everything outside these windows roughly 20 hours a day is off-peak. For a ToU household, shifting the iron, washing machine and geyser even an hour outside this window can meaningfully cut a bill, since the peak/off-peak gap on residential ToU alone is over Rs. 12/kWh.
Net Metering in 2026: What Actually Changed
If you’re weighing solar, this is the part most outdated articles online get wrong. NEPRA Prosumer Regulations 2026 replaced the old 2015 net metering framework and the practical effect is a shift from net metering to net billing.
Previously, every unit you exported to the grid offset a unit you imported, at the same retail rate. Now, exports are valued separately at something close to the National Average Energy Purchase Price, a noticeably lower figure than retail. Practically:
- Old export value: roughly Rs. 26–27/unit
- Interim rate during the 2025–26 transition: Rs. 19.32/unit
- Current net billing rate: approximately Rs. 13/unit
Other changes worth knowing before you sign a solar contract: agreements now run 5 years instead of 7, system size is capped at 100% of sanctioned load and three-phase connections are now mandatory for any net metering application single-phase households must upgrade first. Existing pre-2026 agreements continue under their original terms until expiry.
The bottom line for new solar buyers: returns now depend much more on self-consumption than on selling surplus back to the grid. A system sized for your actual daytime usage still pays for itself; one sized to “sell electricity” no longer makes the same financial sense it did two years ago.
Changing Your Tariff Category
If your connection type no longer matches how you actually use power, say a home office that grew into a registered shop you can apply to switch categories. NEPRA rules allow:
- Residential ↔ Commercial ↔ General Services (A1/A2/A3, any direction)
- Commercial ↔ Industrial (B1/B2 only)
- Seasonal Industrial ↔ Regular Industrial
- Tube Well → Industrial (reverse only after one full year of operation)
To apply: clear all outstanding dues, submit your request at least 30 days in advance and sign a fresh contract. IESCO is required to decide within 30 days of receiving your application and may require an updated security deposit.
What Happens If You’re Using the Wrong Tariff
This is worth knowing even if you never plan to misuse a connection, billing errors happen on IESCO end too.
- If you’ve been using a domestic connection for commercial purposes: IESCO issues a 7-day notice, then reclassifies the tariff and bills the difference capped at two billing cycles unless there is documented proof of longer misuse.
- If you exceed your sanctioned load: IESCO reclassifies you to the correct slab with backdated charges capped at six months.
- If IESCO applied the wrong tariff by its own error: undercharging is never clawed back from you. Overcharging gets refunded or credited for up to six months from the date the error is identified.