The Cabinet of Ministers at its meeting last evening approved to amend the General Policy Guidelines for the electricity industry and implement a cost-reflective electricity tariff formula from this month, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera confirmed.

On 2 January, the Cabinet of Ministers unanimously agreed that they need more time to consider the proposed electricity tariff hike tabled by the Power and Energy Minister and the decision was postponed till yesterday. 

As per the Cabinet paper, it has sought an overall average hike of about another 75%.

On 10 August last year, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka approved to hike of the electricity tariff by an average of 75% across the board.

The tariff revisions were made after 2013 and were done as per the least cost-based method, subject to several conditions applied for the Ceylon Electricity Board to cover its costs and become a financially stable institution.

Last week, PUCSL Chairman Janaka Ratnayake said the proposed electricity tariff hike may be based on the wrong recommendation that the Cabinet of Ministers can bypass the PUCSL Act and decide tariffs under the General Policy Guidelines. 

He categorically said that the Tariff Policy is not included in the General Policy Guidelines. “As per the PUCSL Act, General Policy Guidelines can only adjust the tariffs related to the recovery of the cost. General Policy Guidelines have no provisions in the PUCSL Act on how to finance fuel and coal or increase tariffs. I think they are trying to do this tariff hike by wrongly interpreting the provisions of the PUCSL Act,” he claimed.

Total electricity users in Sri Lanka at present are 7.8 million, whilst 6.7 million of which are domestic users, 1.1 million are general purpose users and 1.4 million use below 30 units per month. A total of 1.7 million use 90 units, while 4.8 million use below 90 units each month.

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