Available inEnglishहिंदीमराठीதமிழ்
Almost nobody is taught to read an electricity bill, and the bill does not help — a dozen charges in abbreviations, most of them unexplained. Below is a working bill. Change the DISCOM, the units or the sanctioned load and it recalculates, and every numbered marker explains the line it points at using the numbers you are looking at.
Every figure below is recalculated from the real tariff schedule for the DISCOM you pick, so the explanations describe arithmetic that actually ran — not a worked example written once and left to age.
Urban domestic above 1 kW. Electricity Duty is a percentage of the whole bill here.
Adds a Wheeling Charge line, and levies Electricity Duty on the energy charge only.
Five narrow slabs, and no additional charges at all — the simplest shape a bill takes.
A percentage fuel surcharge (PPAC) at 17.94%, plus the GNCTD subsidy shown as a deduction.
Carries a prompt-payment rebate, so the bill shows two totals: one if you pay by the due date, one if you do not.
Billed on recorded maximum demand — and July 2026’s fuel surcharge was a credit, so that line is a refund.
The real thing:See this DISCOM’s real bill layoutIts full rate schedule
The real thing:See this DISCOM’s real bill layoutIts full rate schedule
The real thing:Its full rate schedule
The real thing:See this DISCOM’s real bill layoutIts full rate schedule
The real thing:See this DISCOM’s real bill layoutIts full rate schedule
The real thing:See this DISCOM’s real bill layoutIts full rate schedule
Illustrative example This is not a real bill and not a copy of any DISCOM's stationery. Bills differ in layout, field names and ordering from one utility to the next; what is common between them is the set of charges shown here. The consumer number, meter number and address are invented.
1/2 Total energy imported
A real meter shows one register at a time and cycles when you press the button. Press it.
| Slab | Units | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 – 150 units | 150 | ₹5.50 | ₹825 |
| 151 – 250 units | 100 | ₹6.00 | ₹600 |
Verified against the order
The top block identifies the account and, crucially, the rate schedule it is billed under. Errors here are expensive and they persist quietly for years, so it is worth two minutes.
The account the connection is billed to, not the meter. It survives a meter replacement, and it is the number every portal, payment app and complaint form asks for. Names vary by state — Account ID, K Number, CA Number, Service Number — but they are all this field. Copy it exactly, including leading zeroes.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
Which rate schedule your connection is billed under. This one code decides your slab rates, your fixed charge and whether a demand penalty can apply, so it is the single most consequential field on the bill — and the one most often wrong. A home billed under a commercial code pays roughly double. If yours does not match how the premises are actually used, that is a correction worth chasing.
This bill is on LMV-1 Residential / Domestic · ST-10B – Urban Domestic (Sanctioned Load > 1 kW). Every rate below — the slabs, the fixed charge, whether a demand penalty can apply at all — follows from that one code and nothing else.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
The capacity the DISCOM has contracted to supply you, in kW — not what you used. On a domestic bill it usually sets the fixed charge directly. Raising it costs a one-time fee and a higher monthly fixed charge; leaving it too low risks a penalty if your recorded demand overshoots it. It is a genuine trade-off, not a number to minimise.
The sanctioned load is the only thing this charge depends on. Set the units to zero above and it is all that remains on the bill.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
The serial printed on the meter's nameplate, repeated on the bill. It is the one field you can check without reading a single number: stand at the meter, compare. A mismatch means the bill belongs to a different connection, and it is the cheapest error on this list to catch and the most expensive to leave.
Printed on the meter's nameplate and repeated on the bill, which is how the DISCOM ties the two together. If they do not match, the bill is not for the meter on your wall — that is worth raising immediately, not next month.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
A bill carries three dates and they are not interchangeable. One identifies the consumption, one is when the bill was cut, and one is a deadline with money attached to both sides of it.
The month the electricity was used, which is not the month the bill was printed and not the month you pay it. Three different dates, and bills label them inconsistently. This is the one that identifies the consumption, so it is the one to quote in a complaint — and, because the fuel surcharge is notified monthly, it is also what decides which surcharge rate applies to you.
JUN-2026 — the month the power was USED (01-06-2026 to 30-06-2026), not the month the bill was printed. It matters more than it looks: the fuel surcharge is notified per month, so this field decides which rate applies. Switch DISCOM above and watch the same UPPCL connection charge +10% in June and refund 4.43% in July.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
The last day the bill costs what it says. It is worth money in two directions: past it, a late payment surcharge starts accruing on the whole outstanding amount and compounds every month; and where the DISCOM offers a prompt-payment rebate, paying on time is the only way to get it. Disconnection notices are driven off this date too, not off the bill date.
Pay on or before 20-07-2026 and the bill costs exactly what it says. After it, a late payment surcharge starts accruing on the whole outstanding amount and compounds monthly — and where the DISCOM offers a prompt-payment rebate, you lose that too. The gap between the bill date and the due date is typically 15 days.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
The only measured quantity on the whole bill. Everything below is arithmetic performed on this one number.
The cumulative figure the meter displayed on the reading date — the same number the meter beside this bill is showing. It is the only line you can verify yourself without trusting anybody: walk to the meter and look. Note what the meter cannot tell you: the previous reading. That comes off your last bill, which is the practical reason to keep one.
This is the ONLY figure on the bill you can verify yourself, by walking to the meter and looking. Everything else is arithmetic performed on it. Note that the meter cannot show you the previous reading — that comes off your last bill, which is why keeping the last one matters.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
Reading a smart meter yourselfWhen you think the meter is wrong
Present reading minus previous reading, multiplied by the meter constant (the multiplying factor, almost always 1 on a domestic connection). One unit is one kilowatt-hour. This is the only measured quantity on the whole bill — everything below it is arithmetic performed on this one number.
About 8.3 units a day over 30 days. The meter constant is 1 on almost every domestic connection; where it is not, it is printed on the meter and multiplies the difference.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
The highest half-hour average power your connection drew during the month, in kW — a peak, not a total. Consumption and demand are different things: run a 2 kW geyser for ten hours and you use 20 units at 2 kW of demand; run ten 2 kW appliances for one hour and you use the same 20 units at 20 kW. On a commercial or industrial connection the second one costs far more, because the charge follows the peak.
The highest half-hour average the meter logged. On a domestic connection it is recorded but NOT what you are billed on — the fixed charge follows the sanctioned load regardless. It still matters: if it creeps above your sanctioned load, the DISCOM can raise a penalty or ask you to regularise the connection.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
A short code saying how the reading was obtained — whether a meter reader actually read the meter, or the DISCOM estimated it because the meter was locked away, unreadable or faulty. The vocabulary is utility-specific and the codes are rarely expanded anywhere on the bill, but the distinction is the thing that matters: a real reading is a fact, an estimate is a placeholder that will be corrected later, usually by a much larger bill.
How the reading was obtained. OK means the meter was physically read and the reading was accepted — the bill is based on real consumption. DISCOMs print a short code here and the vocabulary is utility-specific. What matters is the distinction: a status saying the meter was actually read, versus one saying it was estimated, inaccessible or faulty. Anything in the second group means the units above are a guess that will be trued up later, and it is worth taking your own reading and quoting it.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
When you think the meter is wrongCheck a bill you have received
A bill is not one price. It is a stack of separate charges, each set by a different rule, and knowing which is which tells you which ones you can do something about.
What the units themselves cost. Almost every Indian domestic tariff is telescopic: the slabs stack rather than replace each other, so crossing into a higher slab raises the price of the extra units only, never of the units below. Your bill prints one total; the table above shows the ladder it came from.
The slabs STACK — crossing into a higher one raises the price of the extra units only. The last unit cost ₹6.00, but the average across the bill is ₹1,425 ÷ 250 = ₹5.70 a unit.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
Payable whether you use a single unit or none. It funds the wires, the meter and the crew, and it is why a locked, empty house still gets a bill. On a domestic connection it is levied per kW of sanctioned load; on a commercial or industrial one it is levied on the recorded maximum demand, which is why the same rate produces very different amounts on the two bills.
Consumption does not enter this formula anywhere. That is why a locked, empty house still receives a bill.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
Charged when the maximum demand the meter recorded during the month exceeded your sanctioned load. The meter logs the highest half-hour average, so a few minutes of everything running at once is enough to trigger it — and it recurs every month you overshoot. Two fixes: stagger the heavy loads, or apply to raise the sanctioned load. Which one is cheaper depends on how far over you are running.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
The one line that changes month to month for reasons nothing to do with you. When the DISCOM's actual cost of buying power differs from what the regulator assumed when your tariff was set, the gap is passed through here. Four things surprise people about it: it is recalculated monthly in several states; it can be negative, in which case it is a refund; where it is a percentage it usually applies to the fixed charge as well as the energy charge; and the notified rate is public, so a bill that shows this line without a rate is worth questioning.
The rate is notified per month and it applies to the fixed charge as well as the energy charge — not to the units alone, which is the commonest misreading of this line.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
How FPPA is calculatedThe 10% cap in Uttar PradeshCurrent rates by state
The cost of moving the electricity across the distribution network to your premises, unbundled from the cost of the electricity itself. States that separate the two — Maharashtra most visibly — print it as its own line. States that do not have folded the same cost into the energy rate. You are not paying it twice.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
A state tax, collected by the DISCOM on the government's behalf. Whether it lands on the energy charge alone or on the whole bill is a state-by-state decision, and it is the reason two bills with identical consumption can differ by a few hundred rupees across a state border. There is no GST on domestic electricity supply — if you see one, look again.
Here the duty sits on the WHOLE bill, fixed charge included. Which base a state uses is a state-by-state decision, and it is why two identical households across a border pay different totals.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
Where this month's charges meet whatever was left over from before.
A state government rebate, shown as a deduction from the charges above rather than as a lower rate. The DISCOM bills the full tariff and the state reimburses it — which is why the gross figure stays high, and why a subsidy can be withdrawn without any tariff order changing. Most schemes are conditional: on consumption staying under a cap, on the category, sometimes on a registration you have to renew.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
This month's charges, after any subsidy — and not what you owe. This is the figure to compare against last month, because it contains this month's consumption and nothing else. The total payable below is a different quantity: it mixes in old dues, and comparing it month to month will tell you a story about your payment history rather than about your electricity use.
THIS MONTH ONLY — it is not what you owe. Across 250 units it works out to ₹1,900 ÷ 250 = ₹7.60 all-in per unit, always above the slab rate. This is the figure to compare month to month; the total payable below mixes in old dues and would tell you the wrong story about your usage.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
Unpaid amounts carried forward. An arrear that appears on a bill you believe you paid is usually a payment posted after the bill was generated — check the payment date against the bill date before raising it. A stubborn one that survives two cycles is worth a written complaint with the transaction reference.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
Interest on what you did not pay by the due date, typically 1.25–2% a month, compounding on the arrear. It is the most avoidable line on any bill: paying on the due date removes it entirely. If a disputed amount is sitting in arrears, LPSC keeps accruing on it while the dispute is open, so raise disputes early.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
Net current bill, plus arrears and surcharge, minus payments already credited. This is what you owe today. Pay the full amount — a part payment does not stop the surcharge on the remainder, and on a prepaid or disconnection-notice account it does not stop the clock either.
Equal to the net current bill above only because nothing is carried forward on this bill. Pay the full amount: a part payment does not stop the surcharge accruing on the remainder.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
Several DISCOMs take a small amount off the bill if you pay on or before the due date — a few paise per unit, or a percentage of the energy charge, sometimes with an extra slice for paying digitally. It is easy to miss because it is printed as a second, lower total near the bottom rather than as a charge. Where it exists, the due date is worth money twice over: you gain the rebate by meeting it and start paying surcharge by missing it.
Not charged on the bill shown — pick another DISCOM or category above and it appears.
The most common complaint about an electricity bill is that the total does not match units multiplied by the rate the reader has in mind. It usually is not an error. Four things account for nearly all of the gap:
If the total still looks wrong after accounting for those, the next thing to check is the reading — an estimated or averaged bill followed by a real reading produces one alarming month that is really two months of consumption.
The bill above is an illustration built from published tariff schedules. It is not a bill, not a quotation, and not a substitute for the one your DISCOM issues. Where a figure here and a figure on your bill disagree, your bill is the authority — and if you think it is wrong, raise it with the DISCOM.