Electricity bill glossary

Parts of the bill

• Reference number — Top-left block of every PITC bill, directly under the company name, usually in the largest monospaced type on the page.
• Billing month — Printed as a month-and-year pair near the reference number, and repeated in the twelve-month consumption history at the foot of the bill.
• Due date — Bottom-right of the bill, immediately above the two boxed amounts — 'payable within due date' and 'payable after due date'.
• Units consumed — In the reading block, to the right of the present and previous readings, and again as the multiplier in the tariff calculation below it.
• Arrears — In the charges column, usually the line directly above 'current bill' and below the tariff breakdown.
• Detection bill — As a separate charge line, often abbreviated to 'DETECTION' or 'DET BILL', with a period covering several past months.
• Average bill — Marked next to the reading — commonly 'A', 'AVG' or 'ASSESSED' — where a normal bill would show a status code for a taken reading.

Charges, taxes and surcharges

• Late payment surcharge (LPS) — Implicit in the 'payable after due date' box; explicit as an LPS line on the following bill if the previous cycle was paid late.
• Fuel price adjustment (FPA) — A per-unit rate line in the charges column, typically labelled FPA or F.P.A., multiplied by the month's units.
• Quarterly tariff adjustment (QTA) — A separate per-unit line, often adjacent to FPA and labelled QTA or 'Qtrly Tariff Adj'.
• Tariff rationalization surcharge (TRS) — A per-unit line, usually printed as TRS or 'T.R Surcharge'.
• Electricity duty (ED) — A short line in the taxes block, generally printed as ED or E. Duty.
• General sales tax on electricity (GST) — In the taxes block, normally the largest of the tax lines.
• Income tax on electricity bills — In the taxes block, often labelled 'I. Tax' or with a section reference such as 235.
• PTV licence fee — A small fixed line in the charges block, usually printed as TV Fee.
• Meter rent — A small fixed line in the charges block, printed as Meter Rent or M. Rent.
• Fixed charges — In the charges block for commercial, industrial and some three-phase domestic connections; frequently absent from small single-phase domestic bills.
• Neelum–Jhelum surcharge — A small per-unit line in the surcharges group where it currently applies.
• Financing cost surcharge — A per-unit line among the surcharges, where applicable to your category.

Tariff and consumer status

• Tariff code — In the account header block alongside the connected load and the meter number, usually abbreviated to two or three characters.
• Slab rate — The rate table printed on the reverse or lower half of the bill, and implicitly in the energy charge calculation on the front.
• Protected consumer — As a marker beside the tariff code in the account header — the suffix on A-1 differs between the two statuses.
• Lifeline consumer — In the tariff code and in the absence of certain tax lines — a lifeline bill is visibly shorter than an ordinary one.
• Time-of-use tariff (TOU) — On a TOU bill the reading block shows two sets of readings and the charges block shows two energy lines, peak and off-peak.
• Peak hours — Printed on TOU bills beside the peak reading, and published in DISCO tariff notifications.

Meters and readings

• Meter reading — The reading block on the front of the bill, showing previous reading, present reading, reading date and a status code.
• Multiplying factor (MF) — In the reading block, printed as MF or M.F., usually as a whole number.
• Smart meter (AMI) — On the meter itself — a communications module and often a display cycling through interval data — and on the bill as consistently non-estimated readings.

Load, power and electrical units

• Maximum demand indicator (MDI) — On commercial and industrial bills as an MDI figure in kW or kVA, with its own charge line.
• Power factor — As a decimal figure on demand-metered bills, with a penalty line where it falls below the threshold.
• Kilowatt-hour (kWh) — As 'units' on the bill; as kWh on the meter display and on appliance labels.
• kVA versus kW — On sanctioned load records, generator and UPS nameplates, and demand charges on industrial bills.
• Connected load — In the account header block, usually in kW beside the tariff code.
• Sanctioned load — In the account header on commercial and industrial bills, and on the original connection agreement for domestic accounts.
• Load factor — Not printed on the bill — it is calculated from units consumed and the recorded maximum demand.

Solar and net metering

• Net metering — On a net-metered bill as separate import and export figures, with the netted position carried forward.
• Bidirectional meter — At the service entrance on a net-metered premises, and reflected on the bill as separate import and export readings.

Who does what

• DISCO (Distribution company) — The company name and logo at the top of every bill.
• NEPRA (National Electric Power Regulatory Authority) — Referenced in the tariff notification your bill is calculated under, and in the complaint escalation notice printed on many bills.
• PITC (Power Information Technology Company) — In the URL of the official duplicate bill, and in the footer of PITC-generated bill PDFs.
• WAPDA (Water and Power Development Authority) — Nowhere on a modern bill — which is precisely the source of the confusion.
• Feeder — Encoded in the middle digits of your reference number, and named in DISCO outage and load management notices.
• Sub-divisional office (SDO) — Named on the bill as the office your account belongs to, often with a contact number.
• Electric Inspector — Rarely on the bill — the route is set out in the Electricity Act and NEPRA's consumer service manual rather than on the statement.

Questions about bill terminology