Sui gas slab rates in Pakistan 2026: protected and non-protected winter bills, worked out
At 0.9 hm3 of gas in a winter month, a protected home pays about Rs 1,638 before tax. A non-protected home using exactly the same amount pays about Rs 4,638. The gas is the same. The meter is the same. The status on the bill is what makes a Rs 3,000 difference.
Sui gas, piped natural gas supplied by SNGPL in the north and SSGC in the south, is billed on slabs set by OGRA, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority. The rates here come from OGRA's domestic sale price notice of 29 June 2025, effective from 1 July 2025, which applies to both companies. Reports in July 2026 said the federal government kept those sale prices unchanged for 2026-27, and a check of OGRA's site on 7 October 2026 found no newer domestic sale price notice. Every worked bill below is arithmetic from the slab table, before sales tax, at the heating value explained further down. Your own bill prints the exact figures used for your month, so check it against the table.
Protected means last winter, not this one
Protected status has nothing to do with income, and nothing to do with the month being billed. A home counts as protected only if its average gas use from November to February last winter was 0.9 hm3 or less. Everyone else is non-protected. This winter's careful use does not make this winter's bills cheap. It protects next winter's bills, if the average across November to February stays at or below 0.9 hm3.
A protected home is billed in four cheap slabs, plus a fixed charge of Rs 600 a month and meter rent of Rs 40 a month. The unit on the meter is hm3, one hundred cubic metres. The price is per MMBtu, a unit of heat. The bill converts one into the other using the gas heating value, called GCV, printed on it. SSGC's own explanation works out its rates at a GCV of 990, and at that value one hm3 is about 3.5 MMBtu. Every example here uses 3.5. If your bill prints a different GCV, your gas charge will differ slightly.
| Monthly use | Protected, Rs per MMBtu | Non-protected, Rs per MMBtu |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 0.25 hm3 | 200 | 500 |
| Up to 0.5 hm3 | 250 | No slab |
| Up to 0.6 hm3 | 300 | 850 |
| Up to 0.9 hm3 | 350 | No slab |
| Up to 1 hm3 | No slab | 1,250 |
| Up to 1.5 hm3 | No slab | 1,450 |
| Up to 2 hm3 | No slab | 1,900 |
| Up to 3 hm3 | No slab | 3,300 |
| Up to 4 hm3 | No slab | 3,800 |
| Above 4 hm3 | No slab | 4,200 |
| Fixed charge a month | Rs 600 | Rs 1,500 up to 1.5 hm3, Rs 3,000 above |
| Meter rent a month | Rs 40 | Rs 40 |
Read the protected column and the spread looks small: Rs 200 to Rs 350 per MMBtu. Read the non-protected column and it runs from Rs 500 to Rs 4,200, more than eight times the cheapest protected rate. A protected home at 0.5 hm3 pays about Rs 1,034 before tax. Lose protected status and the same habit of use costs multiples more, which is why the status line on the bill deserves more attention than the total.
Eight slabs, and a cliff at 1.5 hm3
Non-protected homes climb eight slabs. The rate that applies is the rate for the slab the month's total use lands in, with one preceding slab benefit: gas up to the top of the previous slab is charged at that slab's rate, and only the rest at the home's own slab rate. OGRA's notice states the one preceding slab benefit without setting out the method, and the method used here is the common explanation, which matches SSGC's note that customers get the benefit of the preceding one slab only. Above 4 hm3 there is no benefit at all, so every unit is billed at Rs 4,200. Check the gas charges breakup on your own bill against this.
Here are the worked bills, each at 3.5 MMBtu per hm3, before tax, with the fixed charge and Rs 40 meter rent added:
| Use and status | Gas charge | Fixed charge and meter rent | Total before tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5 hm3, protected | Rs 394 | Rs 640 | Rs 1,034 |
| 0.9 hm3, protected | Rs 998 | Rs 640 | Rs 1,638 |
| 0.9 hm3, non-protected | Rs 3,098 | Rs 1,540 | Rs 4,638 |
| 1 hm3, non-protected | Rs 3,535 | Rs 1,540 | Rs 5,075 |
| 1.5 hm3, non-protected | Rs 6,913 | Rs 1,540 | Rs 8,453 |
| 1.6 hm3, non-protected | Rs 8,278 | Rs 3,040 | Rs 11,318 |
| 2 hm3, non-protected | Rs 10,938 | Rs 3,040 | Rs 13,978 |
| 3 hm3, non-protected | Rs 24,850 | Rs 3,040 | Rs 27,890 |
Take the 2 hm3 bill in full. The first 1.5 hm3 is the previous slab, so 5.25 MMBtu at Rs 1,450 is Rs 7,612.50. The last 0.5 hm3 is 1.75 MMBtu at Rs 1,900, which is Rs 3,325. Add the Rs 3,000 fixed charge and Rs 40 meter rent, and the total is Rs 13,977.50, rounded to Rs 13,978. Without the preceding slab benefit the gas charge alone would be higher, because all 7 MMBtu would fall at Rs 1,900.
The steepest step in the whole table is at 1.5 hm3, and it is a double hit. Going from 1.5 to 1.6 hm3 lifts a non-protected bill from about Rs 8,453 to about Rs 11,318, a rise of about Rs 2,865 for one extra tenth of an hm3. The gas charge rises by Rs 1,365 as the slab rate jumps, and the fixed charge doubles from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000, adding Rs 1,500 more. Households that can see the month approaching 1.5 hm3, from the meter reading and the days left in the cycle, are looking at the one line where a small change in use makes a large change in money.
At the top end the numbers stop looking like household bills at all. A non-protected home at 3 hm3 pays about Rs 27,890 before tax, and above 4 hm3 every unit is charged at Rs 4,200 with no preceding slab benefit. A heater and a geyser together can push a home two or three slabs higher in a cold month, which is how a bill that looked ordinary in October turns severe in January.
Read your own bill before you argue with it
Your winter bill is worked out in five steps. The utility reads the meter and takes the difference between the two readings as the month's use in hm3. It multiplies by the GCV factor printed on the bill. It finds the slab from the table, with protected or non-protected status also printed on the bill. It applies the one preceding slab benefit. Then it adds the fixed charge and meter rent, and sales tax and any other items printed on the bill come on top. Any challenge to a bill has to start by checking each step in that order.
Start with the meter. Photograph it on the day you complain, and compare the reading with the one printed on the bill. A provisional bill, issued when nobody read the meter, is adjusted against the next real reading. If the bill shows units you did not use, or the wrong protected status, complain to SNGPL or SSGC first on helpline 1199. If the company does not fix it, the complaint can be taken to OGRA. A meter that runs fast can be tested at your request.
Two habits decide where a home lands on the table. Heat one room, not the house, close the doors, and run the geyser for set times in the morning and at night rather than leaving it on pilot flame all day. Switch heaters and geysers off before sleep. Test your own pipes for leaks: close every appliance, including the geyser pilot, and watch the meter for 15 minutes. If it still moves, gas is leaking after the meter, and SSGC says that gas is billed to you. Low pressure does not lower a slab on its own. Gas is billed on what passes the meter, and homes that leave valves open during supply cuts burn more when supply returns.
Households feel gas and fuel prices together in one monthly budget. The site's account of the petrol and diesel price notifications in October shows how transport fuel moved in the same season, while the minimum wage rates for 2026 set the income side for the lowest-paid homes facing these bills. Against both, the worked salary tax slabs for 2026-27 show what is left of monthly pay before any bill is paid at all.
Bottled gas is a different price
None of the figures above apply to bottled LPG, and the two are confused every winter. LPG, liquefied petroleum gas sold by the cylinder, has its own monthly OGRA notification. For November 2026, OGRA set the LPG price at Rs 294.07 per kg, and an 11.8-kg domestic cylinder at Rs 3,470.09, Rs 173.86 above the October level of Rs 3,296.23. The revised prices apply across the country from 1 November 2026.
The distinction matters because the policy stories run in opposite directions. For piped gas, OGRA cut the average prescribed price for the two utilities, to Rs 1,705 per MMBtu from Rs 1,793, for 2026-27, yet the federal government kept consumer sale prices unchanged and told the IMF the same. SNGPL was projected to post a surplus of around Rs 44 billion and SSGC around Rs 2.5 billion. For LPG, the November notification raised the price outright. A household that reads one headline and applies it to the other fuel will budget wrong in both directions.
What should a reader watch from here? A new OGRA domestic sale price notice is what changes the slab table. Until then, the 1 July 2025 rates are the rates, the protected test still looks back at last winter, and the 1.5 hm3 line is still the cliff. Check the slab, the status and the GCV on each bill, photograph the meter when a figure looks wrong, and keep this winter's November-to-February average in mind, because it is deciding next winter's status.
Bill examples are estimates before sales tax, at a GCV of 990 (about 3.5 MMBtu per hm3). Your GCV, meter reading date and taxes will move the real figure. Confirm the slab rates, protected status and fixed charge on your own bill and on OGRA's site before relying on any estimate.
Sources
- PakEra — Sui Gas Slab Rates 2026: SNGPL and SSGC Winter Bills
- Mettis Global News — OGRA Declares Gas Price Hike Effective July 1
- The News — Gas Sale Prices Frozen Despite Cut in Tariffs by OGRA
- TechX — OGRA Raises Gas Prices for SNGPL, SSGCL Consumers
- Zaviya — OGRA Lifts 11.8-kg LPG Cylinder by Rs 173.86 in November
