A shop or small office is billed under the A-2 commercial tariff, not the domestic A-1 tariff. A-2 has no slabs: you pay one per-unit rate set by your sanctioned load (under 5 kW, or 5 kW and above), plus a fixed charge, plus that month's fuel and quarterly adjustments and taxes. That is why your bill looks nothing like the one you get at home.
This guide shows you where each of those pieces sits on your bill and how to check them. As of 5 November 2026, we have not been able to confirm the exact A-2 rupee rates against the official notification, so the safest figure to use is the rate printed on your own bill.
Why a shop bill looks different from a home bill
A domestic bill moves through unit slabs, so the price per unit depends on how much you used. Commercial A-2 does not work that way. NEPRA's decision of 11 February 2026 on the "rationalization of tariff of XWDISCOs and K-Electric" has a separate schedule headed "A-2 General Supply Tariff – Commercial", and that schedule has no slabs at all.
Instead it has two bands:
- Sanctioned load less than 5 kW: a single rate for every unit.
- Sanctioned load 5 kW and above: separate rates, with Time of Use (peak and off-peak) rates for this band.
The practical result is that using 150 units or 450 units does not change your rate per unit. What changes your rate is which side of the 5 kW line you sit on.
It also means several things people associate with electricity bills do not apply to shops. The 200-unit protected rates and the lifeline rates are domestic arrangements. A shop does not become "protected" by keeping its usage low.
Step 1: Confirm your bill says A-2
Your tariff code is printed on the bill. If you are not sure which field it is, our page on what the tariff code means shows where it appears and how to read it.
For a shop or office, the code should show A-2. If it shows A-1 (domestic), or something else entirely, that is worth sorting out before you worry about the rate, because everything else on the bill follows from the code.
There are two ways this goes wrong:
- A commercial premises billed as domestic. Some shops run off a home meter. Competitor sites say this counts as tariff misuse under NEPRA's Consumer Service Manual and can lead to back-charges. We have not been able to confirm the exact rules in the Manual, so treat that as unverified, but do not assume a domestic meter on a shop is safe. Ask your distribution company about converting the connection.
- A home wrongly billed as commercial. If the premises is genuinely a residence and the bill says A-2, you are paying a commercial rate without the domestic slabs. You can raise it with a ready-to-send complaint letter, in English or Urdu.
Step 2: Find your sanctioned load and the 5 kW line
The sanctioned load is the load your connection was approved for, in kilowatts. It is printed on the bill, usually near the tariff code and meter details.
| Sanctioned load on bill | A-2 band | How units are priced |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 5 kW | Lower band | One rate for all units |
| 5 kW and above | Higher band | Separate rates; Time of Use (peak/off-peak) applies to this band |
Note that the line is drawn on the sanctioned load, not on how many units you used in the month. A small office with a 6 kW sanctioned load is in the higher band even in a quiet month.
If you are 5 kW and above
Most connections at this size use a Time-of-Use meter, so your bill will show units split into peak and off-peak, each charged at its own rate. Moving heavy use, such as cooling or machinery, out of peak hours is the main lever you have. Our post on peak hours and Time-of-Use meters covers how the hours work and what shifting load can save.
These bills also tend to carry an MDI (maximum demand indicator) reading, which can drive the fixed charge. Rather than repeat it here, see what MDI and fixed charges mean on your bill.
The per-unit rate: where it comes from
The tariff in force across the country is the one notified in S.R.O. 279(I)/2026 of 12 February 2026, issued by the Ministry of Energy. It puts into effect NEPRA's decision of 11 February 2026. NEPRA publishes the SRO as a scanned PDF on its website.
You will find specific A-2 rupee rates quoted widely on other websites. Those figures agree with each other, but they come from blogs, and we have not been able to read them off the official A-2 table ourselves. For that reason we are not printing them here as notified rates.
What you can rely on:
- The rate printed against your units on your own bill is the rate your company is applying to you.
- If you want to check it, open S.R.O. 279(I)/2026 on nepra.org.pk and find the "A-2 General Supply Tariff – Commercial" table, then compare the row for your band (and peak or off-peak, if you have a TOU meter).
- If the rate on your bill does not match the row for your band, check the sanctioned load first. A wrong band is a more common cause than a wrong rate.
One caution: the domestic tariff table on this site and the domestic bill calculator are built around A-1 slabs. Do not use a slab calculator to estimate a shop bill. It will give you the wrong answer, because A-2 has no slabs.
The fixed charge
A-2 bills carry a fixed monthly charge on top of the energy charge. In the scanned copy of NEPRA's 11 February 2026 decision, a fixed charge figure of 1,250 appears next to "Commercial – A2".
We could not confirm from the official table how that figure is applied, for example whether it is per kW, per month, or limited to the 5 kW and above band. Other websites give their own readings, including a separate monthly figure for the under-5 kW band, but none of that is confirmed against the SRO.
So check the fixed charge line on your bill and note:
- the amount charged;
- whether it changes when your sanctioned load or MDI changes;
- whether it appears every month even when usage is low.
If you are in the higher band and the fixed charge seems out of line with your load, the MDI post linked above explains how the reading feeds into it.
The monthly add-ons
After the energy charge and fixed charge, your bill picks up adjustments that change from month to month. These apply to commercial customers too.
| Charge | Amount | Bills affected | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quarterly adjustment | Rs 0.5194 per unit | September, October and November 2026 | Notified by NEPRA |
| Fuel charge (FCA) | Rs 2.06 per unit | September 2026 | Added by NEPRA |
| Fuel charge (FCA) | Rs 2.56 per unit | November 2026 | Power Division projection, not a NEPRA decision |
Quarterly adjustment
NEPRA notified a positive quarterly adjustment of Rs 0.5194 per unit, recovered on September, October and November 2026 bills. It applies to all consumer categories, commercial included. The only exemptions are lifeline consumers, units billed under the incremental consumption package, and prepaid consumers. It was also extended to K-Electric.
So unless your shop is on a prepaid meter, expect to see it. On 300 units, it comes to Rs 155.82 a month (300 × Rs 0.5194), before tax.
Fuel charge
The fuel charge is set month by month and billed per unit. September 2026 bills carried Rs 2.06 per unit. For November 2026 bills, the Power Division projected Rs 2.56 per unit for September's fuel cost, but that is a projection, not a final NEPRA decision. Check the fuel charge line on your own November bill rather than assuming the projected figure.
For the current month's fuel and quarterly figures, with past months alongside, see this month's adjustments.
Taxes
Taxes are added after the charges above. Commercial bills can carry taxes that domestic bills do not, but we have not verified the current rates, so read the tax lines on your own bill. If a tax line looks unfamiliar, ask your distribution company what it is for before paying under protest or filing a complaint.
K-Electric commercial customers
K-Electric's tariff page lists S.R.O. 279 of 12 February 2026 and also S.R.O. 459 of 6 March 2026. We have not examined whether S.R.O. 459 changed any commercial rates for K-Electric customers. If you are in Karachi, check the rate printed on your bill against K-Electric's tariff page rather than assuming the February table applies unchanged.
Common mistakes on shop bills
- Using a domestic slab calculator. A-2 has no slabs, so any slab-based estimate is wrong for a shop.
- Expecting protected or lifeline rates. These are domestic arrangements and do not apply to A-2.
- Expecting the quarterly charge exemption. It covers only lifeline consumers, incremental-package units and prepaid consumers. A postpaid shop pays it.
- Treating the projected November fuel charge as final. Read it off the bill.
- Ignoring the sanctioned load. Crossing the 5 kW line changes how every unit is priced.
Working out a shop bill yourself
To check your bill line by line:
- Confirm the tariff code says A-2.
- Note your sanctioned load: under 5 kW or 5 kW and above.
- Multiply your units by the A-2 rate for your band, as printed on the bill (for TOU meters, do peak and off-peak units separately and add them).
- Add the fixed charge shown on the bill.
- Add the month's fuel charge and quarterly adjustment, each multiplied by your units.
- Add the taxes listed on the bill.
If your total is close to the bill, the bill is probably right. If it is far out, the difference usually sits in the band, the fixed charge or the units read.
What to do next
- Pull up your latest bill on the bill checker and confirm the tariff code and sanctioned load.
- Compare the per-unit rate on the bill with the A-2 table in S.R.O. 279(I)/2026 on nepra.org.pk.
- Check that month's fuel and quarterly charges on our adjustments page.
- If the code or band is wrong, send a complaint letter to your distribution company and keep a copy.
Sources
- S.R.O. 279(I)/2026 dated 12-02-2026 (NEPRA)
- NEPRA decision, Rationalization of Tariff XWDISCOs and KE, 11-02-2026
- NEPRA decision on Federal Government motion, 12-01-2026
- K-Electric Tariff Structure
- Business Recorder, Nepra adjusts quarterly tariff: consumers to pay additional Rs12.67bn
- Dawn, Nepra raises electricity costs by Rs2.58 per unit
- Dawn, Power Division projects Rs2.56 per unit increase in Nov bills