By

Ifham Nizam

With the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), the regulatory body giving the green to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) yesterday, to go for an electricity tariff hike with effect from April 12, the domestic users will have to pay some 68 per cent more on their monthly electricity bills, while others will have to pay more than 26 per cent.

An energy expert, citing examples, said that unlike in the previous revisions, the latest increases would be based on flat rates. “This will certainly hit the poor and needy extremely hard. A person who spends Rs. 200 per month on electricity will now have to pay Rs. 327 going by the minimum five rupees jump. This time around, these groups are the prime target group.”

Despite proposals and objections countering the CEB recommended proposals, from number of sectors, a unit price increases are in the range of Rs. 5 five to Rs. 34. In addition, the existing Fuel Adjustment Charge of 25 per cent on the monthly bill has jumped to 40 per cent, affecting some 80 per cent of the existing five million electricity consumers serviced by both the CEB and Lanka Electricity Company (LECO).

The state-run schools, hospitals, vocational training institutions and universities have been exempted from the fuel adjustment charge as they are funded through the national budget and they provide services free of charge to the public.

The Commission has directed a set of eight conditions prior to the next revision. However, critics said the public should take that with a pinch of salt when the PUC promises to lay down conditions. They charged that it was the same Commission that said that the fuel adjustment charges would be scrapped soon after a 25 per cent charge was imposed in 2012.
COURTESY:THE ISLAND