Electricity bills across Gujarat, outside the farm sector, now carry two charges that were not there in June. A circular from Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL) dated 3 September 2026 told the four state distribution companies to recover a base fuel and power purchase adjustment surcharge (FPPAS) of Rs 2.45 a unit, plus a variable FPPAS of 3.99%, on all consumption from 1 July 2026 until further notice. The Gujarat Congress attacked the charge on Friday, and DeshGujarat and Gujarat Samachar both carried its estimate of what households will pay.
What changed from the April rate
GUVNL’s own filings show the step. Its circular of 11 May 2026 had asked MGVCL, UGVCL, DGVCL and PGVCL to keep charging Rs 2.30 a unit with a variable component of zero for consumption from April 2026, the same rate in force since January. The September letter sets the first-quarter FPPAS for 2026-27 at Rs 2.45 plus 3.99%: a rise of 15 paise a unit on the base charge, and a percentage levy that did not exist before. The percentage applies to the energy charge, the base FPPAS and the fixed or demand charge, but not to excess-demand charges, time-of-use charges or penalties, under para 8.2 of the regulator’s tariff order of 25 March 2026.
Agricultural connections are left out because the state government pays the discoms a subsidy for farm consumption. Everyone else, from a one-room tenement in Bapunagar to a Sanand car plant, pays.
How the 3.99% lands on a household bill
The arithmetic is short. Take a bill in which the energy charge, base FPPAS and fixed charge together come to Rs 1,000. The variable surcharge adds Rs 39.90. The 15-paise base rise adds Rs 15 for every 100 units consumed. The Gujarat Congress, in the statement carried by both outlets, put the combined extra cost at Rs 30 to 45 a month for a 100-unit household, Rs 90 to 135 at 200 units and Rs 300 to 450 at 1,000 units. Those are the party’s figures, not the discoms’. GUVNL has published the rates but no worked examples.
The rate took effect from July, but the circular went out in September, so September bills carried arrears for July and August consumption as well, according to both reports. Consumers who noticed an unusual jump last month were paying three months of the new rate in one go.
Why the surcharge moves every quarter
FPPAS is the channel through which Gujarat’s discoms pass on changes in the cost of fuel and purchased power. The Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission fixes the base tariff once a year; GUVNL recomputes the surcharge each quarter with a lag, so a costlier quarter of coal and short-term power shows up on bills a few months later. The first quarter of 2026-27 covered April to June, the summer months when demand peaks and discoms lean hardest on the market. Our report on Gujarat’s record 29,822 MW demand in October described how a weak monsoon kept the grid stretched into autumn, which raises the odds that the next quarterly revision moves up rather than down.
The regulator’s March 2026 tariff order is the document that permits the variable component; the September circular only applies it. Consumers who want to check their bill should look for three lines: the energy charge, FPPAS at Rs 2.45 and a separate variable FPPAS line computed at 3.99%.
Congress asks for the maths
Manish Doshi, the Gujarat Congress media convenor, asked the government and GUVNL to publish the cost basis behind the increase and to print an itemised breakdown on bills, DeshGujarat reported. The party also questioned why the percentage applies to fixed charges and not only to energy consumed. GUVNL’s circular answers the second point by citing the tariff order, but neither it nor the discoms have published the underlying fuel-cost calculation, which the regulator receives and consumers rarely see. The rise also changes the payback sums for rooftop solar, which we examined when the state announced its 10% cost formula for rooftop systems.
Sources: GUVNL FPPAS circular, Q1 2026-27 (PDF), GUVNL FPPAS circular, Q4 2025-26 (PDF), DeshGujarat, Gujarat Samachar
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.