Are you a protected electricity consumer?

Pakistan's residential electricity tariff has two parallel schedules. The protected schedule targets low-income households: PKR 11.69/unit for 1–100 units and PKR 14.16/unit for 101–200. The unprotected schedule starts at PKR 16.48 and climbs sharply through eight slabs, reaching PKR 42.72/unit above 700 units. On a 180-unit bill the gap is roughly PKR 1,400/month — enough to pay for a small LED-lit household.

NEPRA introduced the protected category in the FY2023-24 tariff to insulate the bottom third of consumers from the tariff hikes that funded the IPP capacity payment stack. Roughly 60% of Pakistan's ~35 million residential meters qualify at any given point, but the qualification bar tightens sharply once summer AC use begins in May.

Protection is not a one-time application — it's a rolling test the DISCO runs on your account every billing cycle. If any of the previous six months shows more than 200 units, you're moved to the unprotected schedule immediately, no notice given. To regain protection, all six subsequent months must fall back to ≤200 units. This is why families that add a single window AC in June often stay unprotected until the following March.

The 200-unit threshold is not just a cap on the protected slab — it's a global cut-off. A month of 205 units re-prices the full month at unprotected rates, wiping roughly PKR 600–900 in slab benefit for the ~5-unit overage. If your household typically runs 190–210, aggressive load-shifting (delaying the geyser, running the fridge on solar mid-day) pays for itself many times over.

• Any commercial (A2), industrial (B), agricultural or bulk connection.
• Three-phase residential meters, regardless of consumption.
• Sanctioned-load applications above 5 kW.
• Time-of-Use (TOU) residential meters — separate schedule.
• Consumers on the K-Electric network (KE runs its own protected/unprotected split; see the K-Electric bill page).