ISLAMABAD: The country’s business community continues to be unimpressed with the government’s ‘success story on energy tariff incentives’ benefiting more than 127,686 industrial consumers in the first two months and counting.
The two sides have exchanged divergent positions on the benefits of a three-year incremental package with a Rs4.04 per unit reduction for industry and the revision of the base tariff from the fiscal year cycle to the calendar year cycle, with effect from January 1, 2026.
The industrial side claims that the package was benefiting only a few industries that were not in operation. Still, larger segments could not avail themselves of the benefits, were already in the process of scaling up, or were in the larger category of B3 and B4, who contributed no loss to the grid but paid more in tariffs.
The industry also contends that even if a Rs4.04 per unit reduction was considered, higher fuel costs resulting from the calendar-year change and quarterly adjustments would nullify that reduction. They claim that Power Division was calculating the diversion of industrial captive power plants from natural gas to the power grid as success for the incremental package.
Business community claims relief lost in translation, amid fuel cost hikes
The Power Division on Friday released two-month data as an overview of the industrial relief package in December 2025 and January. It said a total of 127,686 industrial consumers benefited from the package, receiving cumulative relief of Rs12.125 billion. “This represents 46 per cent of the total 278,961 industrial consumers,” the Power Division said, adding that small and large industries alike received a benefit of Rs10.3 per unit on the consumption of surplus electricity under the package.
It said that during December-January, a total of 1,176 million units of electricity were sold to industries under the surplus package, accounting for 23.80pc of the total industrial units sold during this period. About 557m units of electricity were sold in December under the surplus package, representing 23pc of the total industrial units sold during that month, it added.
This translated into financial relief of Rs5.743 billion for industrial consumers. In December alone, 125,829 consumers benefited from the package, constituting 45pc of total industrial consumers.
In January, 619m units were sold to industries, accounting for 24.5pc of the total under the package. The financial benefit amounted to Rs6.382bn. The number of industrial consumers benefiting in January totaled 127,686, or 46pc of the total. The Power Division said Power Minister Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari was personally committed to taking positive measures for the industrial sector and was directly overseeing these initiatives through regular reviews and progress updates.
This appeared to be in response to a letter from the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), which welcomed the government’s decision to reduce industrial electricity tariffs to restore industrial competitiveness and export viability.
“However, industry and exporters are alarmed over recent developments that have substantially diluted the intended impact of this relief,” said FPCCI President Atif Ikram Shaikh in a letter to the power minister.
He pointed out that the fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for January reflected an increase of approximately Rs1.78 per unit over the reference fuel charges. In addition, the upcoming quarterly adjustment was expected to add approximately Rs0.40 per unit. Consequently, the effective benefit of the announced Rs4.04 cut for the January billing cycle reduces to nearly Rs1.70-1.80 per unit. This is because the January FCA reference was revised downwards from Rs11.64 to Rs10.40, resulting in a higher cost of Rs1.24 per unit for industrial consumers. “In practical terms, more than half of the announced relief has been neutralized within the same billing period,” the FPCCI chief said.
He highlighted that tariff rebasing was undertaken in July 2025 and again in January. Two structural resets within a short span had intensified tariff volatility and eroded planning certainty for industrial consumers. Exporters have already recalibrated international pricing, secured forward contracts, deployed working capital, and engaged labor based on the expectation of a meaningful and sustained reduction.
Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2026
