LESCO Grants Bonus to Employees
The Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) has approved a bonus for its officers and employees, and the news has quickly spread across Pakistan’s media on September 22, 2026. The announcement has drawn attention because it comes at a time when the federal government has been pushing departments and public sector organizations to cut spending under an austerity policy.
This article covers everything currently known about the LESCO employee bonus: the amount, who qualifies, why it is being questioned, and what LESCO’s own financial record shows about whether the company can afford it. Every figure below is checked against LESCO and the Power Division’s own official standing, and any detail that is not yet officially confirmed is clearly marked as such.
What Happened: LESCO Bonus Approval Explained
LESCO’s Board of Directors has approved a bonus payment for the company’s officers and employees. According to media reports, the payment has already started reaching staff following the board’s approval.
Two separate news outlets reported the story on the same day, and their details differ slightly, which matters for anyone relying on this information:
- One report describes the bonus as worth “millions of rupees” without specifying an exact figure or formula.
- Another report is more specific, stating the bonus is equal to one full basic salary for every officer and employee, and puts the total cost in the range of hundreds of millions of rupees.
Neither figure has been confirmed through an official notification published on LESCO’s own website or by the Ministry of Energy (Power Division). Until LESCO or the Power Division releases the actual board resolution or an official notification, the exact bonus amount and total cost should be treated as reported by media rather than officially verified.
Why the Bonus Is Raising Questions
The timing is the main reason this story has attracted attention. The federal government has directed various institutions and departments, including power sector companies, to reduce their expenditures as part of a broader austerity drive aimed at controlling public spending. Despite this, LESCO’s Board of Directors went ahead and approved the bonus, which has raised questions in the media about whether the decision aligns with the government’s cost-cutting instructions.
It is worth noting that austerity measures at LESCO have already touched employees directly in other ways. Senior officers in Grades 18 to 20 recently lost a long-standing benefit of free electricity units, something they had received for nearly three decades. Against that backdrop, the approval of a bonus worth hundreds of millions of rupees stands out as a departure from the general direction of recent cost-control efforts at the company.
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Can LESCO Afford It? What the Official Numbers Show
To fairly assess this story, it helps to look at LESCO’s actual financial performance, which is documented in an official press release from Pakistan’s Press Information Department (PID), the government’s own information wing under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
According to that official record, LESCO has delivered one of the strongest financial turnarounds of any power distribution company in Pakistan over the past two fiscal years:
- Distribution losses fell from 15.8 percent to 11.86 percent, a four-percentage-point reduction described as the largest two-year loss reduction ever achieved by a Pakistani electricity distribution company.
- The recovery rate climbed to 101.05 percent, crossing the 100 percent benchmark set by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) for the first time.
- LESCO’s financial gap narrowed from Rs 79 billion to around Rs 21 billion within two years.
- The improvements are estimated to have delivered cumulative savings of more than Rs 58 billion for the national exchequer.
Federal Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari has credited this turnaround to consistent performance monitoring, an independent and empowered Board of Directors, network modernization, and depoliticized management under the Ministry of Energy’s (Power Division) reform program.
This context is useful because it shows LESCO is currently one of the better-performing DISCOs (Distribution Companies) financially, which may explain why its Board felt it had room to approve a bonus even while other departments are being told to cut costs. That said, this financial data relates to LESCO’s overall loss reduction and recovery performance; it is not an official justification document for the bonus itself, and no official statement has directly linked the two.
LESCO’s Bonus History: Not the First Time
Bonuses for LESCO employees are not a new development. The company has a documented history of approving bonuses and allowances for its workforce, usually tied to Eid, performance recognition, or union negotiations with the Board of Directors:
- LESCO has previously paid one-month basic salary bonuses before Eid-ul-Fitr on multiple occasions, following meetings between the Board of Directors and the All Pakistan WAPDA Hydro Electric Workers Union.
- In 2024, LESCO management sanctioned a one-month salary Performance Allowance in recognition of employees working under staff shortages caused by recruitment restrictions.
- In 2023, LESCO’s Board approved a 35 percent salary increase for Grade 1 to 16 employees and 30 percent for Grade 17 and above, along with a 17.5 percent pension increase, in line with the federal budget for that fiscal year.
This pattern suggests that bonus approvals at LESCO are typically routed through the Board of Directors and often follow either a festival, a union demand, or a performance-based justification, which is consistent with how the current bonus has reportedly been approved.
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How LESCO’s Bonus Compares to Other DISCOs
LESCO is not the only distribution company to approve a bonus in 2026. The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) approved a similar performance-based bonus for its employees earlier in the year, and the structure of that approval offers a useful comparison.
| Detail | LESCO (Reported) | PESCO (Officially Notified) |
|---|---|---|
| Bonus amount | One basic salary (unconfirmed officially) | One month’s basic salary |
| Basis | Reported as approved amid austerity drive | Performance during FY 2025-26 |
| Eligibility | Not specified in current reports | Regular, contract, and deputation staff; minimum 6 months on payroll |
| Exclusions | Not specified in current reports | Employees involved in corruption, power theft, misconduct, or under NAB/FIA investigation |
| Official notification | Not yet published | Issued through an official notification |
The comparison shows that PESCO’s bonus came with a clearly published notification detailing eligibility and exclusion criteria. As of this writing, no equivalent official notification for the LESCO bonus has been made public, which is why several of the specific details, such as which employee categories qualify and whether any exclusions apply, remain unknown.
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Is There an Official LESCO Notification?
As of publication, no official notification or press release regarding this specific bonus has been found on LESCO’s official website or on the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) website. The information currently available comes entirely from media reports citing sources within or close to LESCO.
This does not necessarily mean the bonus has not been approved; internal notifications at government-owned utilities are sometimes circulated to staff before being made public. However, readers should treat the exact bonus amount and total cost as reported figures until LESCO’s Board of Directors or the Power Division confirms the details through an official channel.