The federal government has approved an increase in fixed charges for domestic gas consumers of both Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), effective from July 1, 2025.

The fixed charge will rise by Rs150 for protected consumers and Rs400 for non-protected consumers.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, in a meeting held on Friday, approved a summary submitted by the Petroleum Division outlining a revised natural gas pricing structure for the fiscal year 2025–26.

To protect household consumers, the ECC decided to maintain existing gas prices for the domestic sector, adjusting only the fixed charges to help recover asset costs.

However, gas tariffs for bulk consumers, power plants operating on natural gas, and general industry (process use) will increase by an average of 10 percent.

The revised tariffs are as follows:

• Bulk consumers: increased from Rs2,900 to Rs3,075 per mmbtu

• Power sector: raised from Rs1,050 to Rs1,313 per mmbtu

• General industry (process): up from Rs2,150 to Rs2,350 per mmbtu

Minimum bills for both protected and non-protected residential users will continue to be calculated based on the first slab of their respective categories.

Additionally, the revised tariffs will apply to gas supplies from Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) to Guddu and from Mari Petroleum to Foundation Power.

According to the summary presented to the ECC, a major cross-subsidy — estimated at Rs168 billion annually — continues to exist within the domestic gas pricing structure.

The government, in consultation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), is working to phase out cross-subsidies and replace them with direct or budgeted subsidies through the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

A new framework is expected by June 2026, with implementation anticipated in 2027, mirroring a similar reform initiative underway in the power sector.

To minimize the impact of price increases on domestic consumers, the ECC approved tariff adjustments across the bulk domestic, industrial (process), and power sectors — which had remained unchanged since February 2023.

The revised tariffs are expected to generate Rs41 billion in revenue for SNGPL and create a surplus of Rs31 billion for SSGC. The latter will be used to partially offset SSGC’s accumulated revenue shortfalls, which currently stand at approximately Rs565 billion.