In most countries, the cost of keeping the lights on, the water running, and the stove burning is a background detail of life, noticed only when something goes wrong.

Economists even define it in simple terms that if a household spends more than 6-10% of its income on energy, it is considered to be in energy stress. For water and sanitation, the benchmark is even lower, around 3%. Beyond that, policy experts begin to speak of ‘utility poverty’, a condition where essential services start competing directly with food, education, and health in the household budget.

In Pakistan, that line has not just been crossed but has been left far behind. For millions of households, utility bills now absorb 30% to 50% of monthly income. In lower-income segments, particularly among informal workers and fixed-wage families, the proportion can rise even higher during peak summer electricity demand or winter gas shortages.

A family earning Rs. 60,000 a month in an urban centre may receive electricity bills ranging between Rs. 18,000 and Rs. 25,000 in high-consumption months. Add gas, water, and municipal charges, and the total utility burden can exceed Rs. 30,000. By global standards, this is not stress but a systemic overload. To put this in perspective, in many advanced economies even during recent energy crises triggered by global fuel shocks, governments intervened aggressively to prevent household energy costs from exceeding 10-15% of income. Temporary subsidies, price caps, and direct cash transfers were used not as........

© Pakistan Observer