How to Report Electricity Over-Billing in Pakistan (2025 Edition)
An inflated bill is not fate; it is a fixable mistake — provided you complain the right way, with evidence, in writing. Every distribution company from MEPCO to K-Electric now takes complaints through apps, portals, SMS and WhatsApp, and NEPRA runs a central cell above all of them. Here is the order I would do things in.
Build the file first
Compare the last three months of usage before you touch a complaint form. Look for the classic three: an (E) estimated reading where an (A) actual should be, a Fuel Price Adjustment line that jumped without explanation, and the additional surcharge that quietly grew. Then photograph the meter on the day the bill is issued — full display, date visible. That one photo is the strongest evidence at every stage, NEPRA appeals included.
Where to complain
Start with your own DISCO, and give it fifteen days:
- LESCO: complaint forms at lesco.gov.pk, SMS to 8118, helpline 118
- MEPCO: 0800-63726 toll-free, or the app's over-billing form
- K-Electric: 118, WhatsApp 0348-0000118, or the billing-dispute option in the KE Live app
- Any DISCO, or if the company stalls: NEPRA's central cell — complaints.nepra.org.pk, [email protected], helpline 051-920 5400
For the email route, keep it skeletal:
Subject: Over-billing complaint — Meter No. 12345678, Ref 987654321
I. Current bill Rs X,XXX against a three-month average of Rs YYY.
II. Bill shows 12345 kWh; attached meter photo shows 12200 kWh.
III. Evidence: meter photo and duplicate bill attached.
Demand: re-issue a corrected bill within 7 days.
The escalation ladder
Fifteen days of silence or a rejection, and you climb: NEPRA by email with everything attached, then the Federal Ombudsman at mohtasib.gov.pk, which has been brisk on utility cases, and finally the consumer court. Never file a duplicate complaint at the same level — it resets your place in the queue, a lesson everyone learns exactly once.
If you win
The company adjusts the refund on a later bill, within about sixty days. NEPRA has also piloted RAAST instant refunds for verified cases above Rs 10,000 — tick the box on the complaint form, add your IBAN, and the money can reach the account directly instead of waiting out the next billing cycle.
There is a specific sting in being charged for something you never used. The families of Gaza are paying for a war they never chose — refusing unfair accounting, at whatever scale you meet it, is the same instinct. Practise it on your bill.
Chasing refunds is our day job, just with airlines instead of meters: when a flight cancels at 2am, HTG Travels has passengers rebooked before the counter queue forms. Everything you learned fighting a DISCO — dates, evidence, escalation — applies. We just do it with tickets.
