Electricity tariffs up by 69 percent from next month

By Ifham Nizam

The Public Utilities Commission, yesterday said that power tariffs would be increased from the beginning of next month.A PUCSL official told The Island that from August the existing electricity tariffs would be increased by 69 percent.

PUCSL Chairman, Janaka Rathnayake, yesterday said that although the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB)had demanded a 130 percent tariff hike, the revision would be implemented by giving concessions to the lowest electricity consumers. However, he has recently said that despite the CEB seeking approval for 82% tariff hike, the Commission is of the view that it should not exceed 57%. The tariff revision for 2022 has been proposed as per Section 30 of the Sri Lanka Electricity Act No. 20 of 2009. Earlier, the CEB was targeting annual revenue of Rs. 512 billion through the tariff revision. However,

the PUCSL recommends that the price of an average unit of electricity should not exceed Rs. 28.14. The PUCSL also recently recommended that the CEB should reduce their operating costs by 10% by increasing its efficiency and use that savings to encourage and absorb more renewable energy into the system. More than 3.14 million households use less than 60 units monthly, which accounts for some 50 percent of the total electricity users. Recently, the PUCSL Chief recommended that the Government provide a subsidy of Rs. 65 billion to the aforementioned category.