The Prime Minister wants an answer on whether Pakistan’s mobile and broadband companies should pay the cheaper industrial rate for the electricity that runs their towers and exchanges. Shehbaz Sharif has told a special task force to wrap up its recommendations, and the government will decide after reading them.
Nothing has been decided and no customer bill changes with this step. The Prime Minister’s Office told the group to take views from the power and finance divisions and to put a figure on the cost to the government and on how the difference between the two tariffs would be covered.
Operators have been asking for this for some time. The chief executives of Jazz, Zong’s parent CMPak, PTML (Ufone and Telenor) and PTCL made a joint request, arguing that their sites are billed at commercial rates even though telecom is officially treated as an industry. They cite the 2004 Mobile Cellular Policy, an April 2004 notification from the industries ministry, a 2021 amendment to the Income Tax Ordinance that covers licensed operators, and a January 2026 IT-ministry directive asking for the tariff to be reviewed.
Their cost figures are their own and unaudited. Since 2018, they say, commercial power prices for telecom sites have climbed about 197% and fuel about 300%, while the average revenue per user has slid about 22%. A further 5% withholding tax adds to the squeeze, and they say about $2 billion has been pledged over three years for 5G and fibre. The same estimates say cheaper grid power would slow the growth of solar-based off-grid sites from 15% to between 5% and 7% and lift grid consumption by 15 to 20%, which they argue would help distribution companies win back revenue.
The task force itself was formed on 29 June 2026 under the secretary of the IT ministry and met for the first time on 4 August. Its job covers industrial tariffs for operators, smart-grid options and dedicated feeders to shorten long power cuts. Members come from the telecom regulator, the Power Division, NEPRA, the operators and the distribution companies.
They would keep the relief narrow by having the regulator certify the qualifying sites. Towers, base stations, core and switching sites, exchanges, fibre-to-the-home nodes, network operations centres and data centres built for AI and cloud would count; head offices, customer centres, franchises and shops would stay on commercial rates. If a policy directive is not workable, they propose a separate “Digital/Telecom Infrastructure” customer category billed at industrial rates.
The operators say savings would go into 5G, rural coverage and fibre, which is a pledge about their networks rather than a promise of lower prices for subscribers. The recommendations now go to the federal government.
