GEPCO Additional Demand Notice: Do You Have to Pay It?

You paid your GEPCO demand notice on time. Months later, a second letter arrives. It says material rates have gone up and asks for more money before GEPCO finishes the work. This is the "additional" or "revised" demand notice.

Is it fair? NEPRA has answered that in many GEPCO complaints. The answer comes down to three tests, and two of them are about dates.

Test 1: Is your load small enough to be exempt?

NEPRA's Consumer Service Manual (CSM) 2025 has a clear line on this. No escalation cost shall be charged to residential consumers up to 20 kW load. The same applies to commercial consumers up to 15 kW load.

So an ordinary house or small shop in Gujranwala, Sialkot or Gujrat should not get an escalation notice. Industrial connections, tube wells, bigger loads and housing schemes are not exempt. For them, tests 2 and 3 decide.

Test 2: When should GEPCO have finished?

Annexure-III of the CSM sets a time frame for every load band. NEPRA counts the deadline from the date you paid the demand notice in full. It adds the days for issuing material, doing the work and installing the meter.

Example: you paid a 22 kW industrial notice on 28 April. The deadline is 34 days later, on 1 June. NEPRA used exactly this count in a Gujrat case below.

If GEPCO misses the deadline, the CSM says it must give reasons for each day of delay in writing to you, with a copy to NEPRA. A delay does not cancel GEPCO's duty to connect you.

Test 3: Did the rates rise inside or outside that window?

This is the core rule. NEPRA's decisions quote it as clause 2.4.6 of the CSM:

• Rates rose within the time allowed for your connection: you pay the extra cost.
• Rates rose after that time ran out: no escalation charges apply.
• Material already taken from the store and fitted: NEPRA has not allowed new rates on it.

If GEPCO is short of material, CSM clause 2.7.1 lets it ask you to buy the material from its approved vendors. GEPCO then charges 2.5% of the material cost for inspection and 8% for installation. In several cases below, GEPCO never sent such a letter, and NEPRA held that against it.

Seven GEPCO cases NEPRA has decided

All of these are on NEPRA's GEPCO decisions page. Amounts are as written in the decisions.

When GEPCO was right

In Canal Valley, the sponsor paid on 7 October 2021. GEPCO revised its material rates from 1 November 2021. That was inside the 46-day window. NEPRA said the extra amount was payable.

"...the Complainant is not liable to pay the difference of capital cost if enhancement in material cost occurred after forty six (46) days of payment of first demand notice in full."

Garden Town Phase-III is similar. Its window was 451 days, so the April 2023 rates fell inside it. But NEPRA still said GEPCO could not re-price material that was already fitted at site.

When GEPCO was late

The two small industrial cases in Gujrat matter most for ordinary applicants. Both had a 34-day window. In both, GEPCO connected months late and then sent a second notice for the transformer's new price.

In the Khonan Gharbi case, the applicant had already paid the second notice under protest. NEPRA still told GEPCO to withdraw it and refund or adjust any excess in future bills. GEPCO had not asked the applicant to buy the missing material, and had not given written reasons for the delay.

In the Kunjah case, GEPCO blamed a Covid-19 transformer shortage. NEPRA accepted that supply was disturbed until 13 October 2021 and allowed rates only up to that date. Even after that, GEPCO took more than three months to connect.

When GEPCO blamed the applicant

In the Siddiqui Housing Scheme case, GEPCO said the work stopped because of a right-of-way problem. NEPRA found the problem was only about poles outside the society. Nothing stopped GEPCO from fitting the transformers inside, and NEPRA called the excuse a cover for negligence. A July 2026 corrigendum fixed the rate date at 27 May 2022, which is 76 days after the 12 March 2022 payment.

GEPCO also points to the small print in its demand notices and approval letters. One line says any excess expenditure "for any reason" is payable by the sponsor. In Garden Town and Canal Valley, NEPRA said this reading goes against the CSM. The manual's rule comes first.

What to do when the letter arrives

1. Find your payment date. Use the bank receipt of the first notice, not the notice's issue date.
2. Work out the deadline. Use your load band from the table above.
3. Ask for the details in writing. For cost deposit cases, CSM clause 2.4.10 says GEPCO must give you the full estimate and bill of quantities with the notice. Ask which month's rate list was used and which items were re-priced.
4. Compare the dates. Did the new rates start before or after your deadline? Were items already fitted re-priced?
5. Complain to GEPCO first. Write to the office that issued the notice (numbers are in our GEPCO telephone directory). Keep copies.
6. Then go to NEPRA. If GEPCO does not fix it, file on the NEPRA complaint system. Attach both notices, both receipts and your dates.

Once the connection is on, try our GEPCO monthly bill estimator to plan the running cost, and use the GEPCO bill page to check your first bill.

Questions readers ask

Sources: NEPRA Consumer Service Manual 2025 (GEPCO copy), clauses 2.4.3, 2.4.6, 2.4.7, 2.4.10, 2.7.1 and Annexure-III; NEPRA Authority decisions on GEPCO complaints, including the Garden Town decision of 5 May 2026 and the Khonan Gharbi decision of February 2024.