The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has announced an increment in electricity tariff by an average of 18.36% across board for all customer groups.
“The review has become necessary to maintain the value of cost of supply of the utility services and to ensure that the utility companies do not under or over-recover costs.
“While under-recovery has negative implications for the ability of the companies to supply service to consumers, and has the potential of causing outages of electricity, over-recovery unnecessarily overburdens consumers of electricity,” the utility regulator explained in a statement on Wednesday.
The statement further noted, “The PURC is very mindful of the current economic circumstances, but notes that the potential for outages (dumsor) is high and this could have a strong adverse impact on the citizens and businesses. This has to be avoided.
“The PURC, therefore, sought to balance prevention of extended power outages and its adverse implications on jobs and livelihoods, while minimising the impact of rate increases on consumers. The Commission will continue to monitor the quality of service to ensure consumers get value for money”.
It added, “The Commission therefore decided, after extensive deliberations and analysis, to increase the average end-user tariff for electricity by 18.36% across board for all customer groups.”