NEPRA Plans Changes to Electricity Theft Detection Bill Rules

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has suggested amendments to the rules concerning electricity theft detection bills for consumers. The proposed changes would permit power distribution companies (Discos) to levy such bills for a maximum of 12 months in specific electricity theft instances. Detection bills for commercial, industrial, and registered consumers could extend to 12 months and depend on the consumer's load.

Domestic consumers, however, would still be restricted to a 6-month maximum detection billing period. Discos would be able to issue detection bills for cases involving false or fake meters, altered meter load profiles, tampered billing meters through software, or altered meter readings using devices such as Bluetooth. The amendments would also apply to breaches of billing meter security and other forms of meter tampering.

In these cases, the detection bill would be based on load rather than future or past electricity consumption. The maximum detection billing period for domestic consumers would remain at 6 months, subject to NEPRA's approval of the proposed amendments to the Consumer Service Manual.