A data story
Why your electricity bill has someone else's debt in it
Every consumer bill carries a slice of a debt that isn't theirs. Here's how it built up, who's responsible, and why the government just missed its own target to fix it.
Stage 1 of 5
The debt itself
Pakistan's power-sector circular debt stood at roughly ₨1.84 trillion as of mid-2026 — and that's the smaller half; the combined power-and-gas energy sector debt is over ₨5.2 trillion, with gas debt (₨3.4tn) now larger than power debt.
Stage 2 of 5
Where it leaks — the worst utilities
NEPRA's own regulator report names the worst performers: SEPCO (Sukkur) loses 39.2% of the power it distributes before it's ever billed; QESCO (Quetta) 38.4%; PESCO (Peshawar) 37.1%. These four utilities alone added ₨397 billion to the debt pile in a single year.
Stage 3 of 5
The surcharge on your bill
Fuel and quarterly tariff adjustments — the line items that swing your bill up or down — partly exist to claw back exactly this kind of loss. NEPRA doesn't publish a clean 'this much of your bill is circular debt' breakdown, so this is an order-of-magnitude estimate, not an official figure.
Stage 4 of 5
The target Pakistan just missed
Pakistan committed to bring power-sector circular debt down to ₨1.61 trillion by the end of FY2025-26. It landed at ₨1.84 trillion instead — a shortfall independently confirmed across four financial-press outlets, attributed largely to K-Electric's ~₨200bn in unpaid power-purchase dues.
Stage 5 of 5
Is the fix credible?
The government's structural fix is to privatize Sukkur and Hyderabad's electric supply companies by the end of 2026. Independent commentary is skeptical rather than convinced — this is the second consecutive review cycle where the same structural drivers (distribution losses, non-payment) have recurred despite reform commitments.
How the debt builds