Scan your electricity bill and you will find a small but stubborn line item that has nothing to do with units, slabs or taxes: the PTV fee. Many consumers assume it is a mistake or a hidden charge. It is neither. Here is what the PTV licence fee is, who has to pay it, how much it costs, and whether you can get it removed.
What the PTV fee actually is
The PTV fee is a television licence fee collected on behalf of Pakistan Television (PTV), the state broadcaster. It is a statutory levy: instead of collecting it separately, the government uses electricity bills as the collection mechanism, because almost every household has an electricity connection. The distribution companies (DISCOs) and K-Electric collect it with your bill and pass it on to PTV. It funds the broadcaster’s operations, including its news, entertainment and regional-language programming.
How much is the PTV fee?
The fee is a flat monthly amount — it does not change with your units. For domestic consumers it is currently Rs 100 per month (it was raised from Rs 35 a few years ago, so older bills show the smaller figure). Commercial and industrial connections are charged at higher flat rates. Because it is fixed, a household using 80 units pays exactly the same PTV fee as one using 800. Always check the figure on your latest bill, since the government revises it through official notifications from time to time. If you want to see where it sits among the other extras, our complete breakdown of electricity bill taxes puts it in context.
Who has to pay it?
Every domestic electricity consumer in Pakistan pays the PTV fee — across all ten DISCOs (LESCO, GEPCO, FESCO, IESCO, MEPCO, PESCO, HESCO, SEPCO, QESCO and TESCO) as well as K-Electric in Karachi. It applies whether or not you own a television set, watch PTV, or even have a working TV antenna. The logic is simple: the fee is attached to the electricity connection, not to TV ownership. Businesses and tube-well connections pay their own prescribed rates.
Why is it on the electricity bill?
Collecting a licence fee door-to-door would be expensive and unreliable, so the government piggybacked it on the one bill nearly every household pays. The DISCOs already have the billing infrastructure, meter data and enforcement (non-payment can lead to disconnection), which makes the electricity bill the most efficient collection channel. That is also why the fee survives every wave of complaints: it is easy to collect and hard to avoid.
Can the PTV fee be removed from your bill?
For most consumers, no. There is no exemption for not owning a television, and customer service centres will not waive it on request. Over the years, consumers have challenged the fee in courts and through consumer forums, arguing they should not fund a channel they do not watch — but the levy remains in force as a statutory charge.
There are only a couple of narrow situations worth knowing about:
- Wrong amount charged. If your bill shows a PTV fee far above the notified rate (for example, the commercial rate on a domestic connection), raise it with your DISCO’s complaint cell or helpline and ask for a correction.
- Duplicate billing. If two bills in one month each carry the fee because of a billing error, the extra can usually be adjusted after a complaint.
- Exempt categories. Certain institutional or government connections are exempt by notification — but ordinary households are not.
In short: you cannot opt out, but you can and should dispute genuine billing errors.
How to check it on your bill
The PTV fee appears as its own line, usually labelled “PTV fee” or “TV licence fee”, in the taxes-and-charges section of the bill. If you are reading a paper bill for the first time, our guide to every section of the electricity bill shows exactly where to look. And if you have misplaced the paper copy, you can check your bill online — the PTV line appears on the digital duplicate too.
The bottom line
The PTV fee is a small, fixed, unavoidable part of every electricity bill in Pakistan — Rs 100 a month for a typical home, funding the state broadcaster whether you watch it or not. It will not make or break your budget, but understanding it stops it from being a mystery. For the bigger wins, focus on what you can control: estimate your usage with the bill estimator on our homepage and work through our 12 proven tips to cut your electricity bill, where the real savings hide.
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