The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) says it has submitted the necessary data supporting the proposal seeking electricity tariffs revision to the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL).
In the proposal handed over to the PUCSL, the state-owned electricity supplier said it has analyzed all possible scenarios to approach the best estimate of expenditure and revenue based on a number of factors such as existing tariffs, availability of coal/oil fuel stocks, future fuel prices, hydro inflow variations, scheduled plant outages, envisioned economic crisis resulting in the reduction of energy demand and sales, adjusted expenses of transmission and distribution, various policy instructions of government to derive the Bulk Supply Tariff (BST) and end-user tariff proposal.
Based on CEB’s analysis, a surplus of Rs. 23,730.9 million is estimated. The CEB says the surplus can be used for the reduction of average tariff by 3.34%.
“The new tariff proposal has been prepared considering a relief to low-income vulnerable groups and the entities of economically important businesses based on policy instructions of MOPE (Ministry of Power & Energy). Accordingly, a surplus has been allocated to all the consumer categories […],” the CEB said.
Electricity tariffs in the domestic category for consumers using less than 30 units is thus proposed to be reduced by Rs. 1, to Rs. 11 per unit. Meanwhile, the fixed charge for the first 30 units consumed is proposed to be reduced to Rs. 165 from Rs. 180.
Furthermore, the tariff charged per unit for the units consumed between 31-60, which currently stands at Rs. 30, is proposed to be reduced to Rs. 27. The fixed charge for this category is suggested to be brought down to Rs. 360 from Rs. 330.
On Friday (Jan.12), CEB’s media spokesperson Eng. Noel Priyantha said the state-owned electricity supplier would hand over the proposal for electricity tariffs reduction to the PUCSL during the course of the day.
“We are working on providing maximum possible relief to the public by way of electricity tariffs,” he said emphasizing that low-income people would definitely receive these benefits.
The CEB spokesperson further mentioned that a tariff reduction is possible as Sri Lanka has received substantial rainfall over the past few months, especially in the months of November and December.
On January 05, State Minister of Power & Energy Indika Anuruddha told a press conference that data supporting the electricity tariffs revision had already been submitted to the PUCSL and that the rates were likely to be slashed by the first week of February.
However, the PUCSL was at odds with the statement and denied receiving a document from the CEB on the proposed electricity tariffs reduction. The energy sector regulator clarified that there was no truth to the media reports in this regard.
CEB Electricity Tariff Revision Proposal by Adaderana Online on Scribd
