By Anuradha Hiripitiyage

The Electricity Users’ Association (EUA) yesterday asked the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) two more weeks for public consultations on raising electricity tariffs.EUA Secretary Sanjeewa Dhammika told The Island that the time for public consultations ended on 18 July.

“However, this was a bad time for public consultation. There was no fuel and people can’t travel around. The Postal Department was hardly operational. People are hardly aware that a public consultation on raising electricity tariffs is taking place,” he said.

Dhammika said that most people, especially those who will be worst affected by an increase in electricity tariff, are in queues.

“Moreover, even interested civil society organisations or researchers are struggling to ascertain relevant data. So we urge the PUCSL to give us more time to comment on the proposed tariff hike,” he said.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has asked the PUCSL to approve an 82% increase in tariffs for the year 2022 under Section 30 of the Sri Lanka Electricity Act No. 20 of 2009. However, PUCSL has said the tariff increase should not exceed 57%.

“There are 3.14 million of household electricity consumers who consume less than 60 units per month. They account for about 50% of the total household electricity consumers. Therefore, the PUCSL has asked the government to provide a subsidy of Rs. 65 billion to those consumers. By providing this subsidy, the CEB will be able to avoid a large increase in tariffs for the category who consumes less than 60 units per month,” PUCSL chairman Janaka Ratnayake said.

Dhammika added that if the CEB proposal was approved, the average monthly electricity bill for those who consume less than 30 units would increase to Rs. 507. The average monthly bill for those who used over 30 units but less than 60 units, would increase to Rs. 1488, he added.

“The CEB is looking at an annual revenue of Rs. 512 billion through this tariff revision. However, we recommend that the tariff for a unit of electricity, on average, should not exceed Rs. 28.14. We also recommend that the CEB must reduce their operating costs by 10 percent by increasing its efficiency and use the savings to supply more renewable energy to the system,” he said.

The PUCSL said that in 2014, it had proposed a number of recommendations that would reduce the operating costs of the CEB significantly. They are the implementation of a proper agreements to generate and supply electricity from power plants owned by the Ceylon Electricity Board; the implementation of a proper agreement method for electricity transactions between the Transmission and Distribution Divisions (between licensees) of the Ceylon Electricity Board; the introduction of a proper system for keeping separate accounts for the financial activities of the various divisions of the Ceylon Electricity Board (Generation, Transmission and Distribution) and the determination of the subsidy requirements and the introduction of an independent audit system for the process of purchasing electricity.