UNP deplores unjust electricity tariff hike

Thursday, 18 April 2013 01:08 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The main Opposition UNP yesterday deplored the electricity tariff hike on households as “unjust”.

“This is a heartless tariff increase that will hit the low income households hard, with medium to long term negative development consequences,” UNP MP and its Chief Spokesman on the economy Dr. Harsha de Silva said yesterday.

“While it is true that the CEB losses must be reduced to ease the pressure on the Treasury and slow down the massive build-up of debt to maintain macro stability, the way in which it should have been done is certainly not to hammer the low income households who are anyway struggling to consume even what they do now,” the UNP MP added.

This hike, he pointed out, will certainly increase and deepen electricity poverty in Sri Lanka.

“It is saddening to note that the spineless PUCSL met with the President and compromised its independence in agreeing to increase the tariffs by over 50% on households considered ‘electricity poor’ – that is those who use less than 48 units per month – while increasing the tariffs by a mere 1% on the super-rich who consume more than 900 units,” alleged Dr. de Silva.

He said the UNP was seriously concerned that the avenues for corruption in generating, transmitting and distributing electricity have not been addressed by the PUCSL as there are no requirements to bring transparency into the costs of CEB.

“Neither has the PUCSL addressed the issue of procurement of coal by a private company that is outside the remit of the regulator. It has not addressed the issue of renegotiating heat rates in some generating units, particularly Kerawalapitiya either. All this means that corruption will continue to flourish at the CEB. The only positive requirement is to setup a software-based merit order dispatch scheme to check on petty corruption at the CEB on a daily basis,” the UNP MP said.

“The PUCSL has let the public down and in reflection the time spent by the hundreds of people’s representatives, consumer groups, engineers and civil society organisations in participating in the public consultations was a total waste,” Dr. de Silva charged.