ZESCO to raise K16 billion in first year of implenetation
Chief executive officer at Zambia’s energy generation company ZESCO Ltd, on 24 April justified the 91% average retail tariff hike proposal. ZESCO has formally written to the Energy Regulation Board – ERB suggesting an upward adjustment to retail tariffs aimed at funding capital expenditure needed to make electrification possible.
Mr. Victor Mundende said during a presentation in Lusaka that ZESCO had proposed to increase retail tariffs to K1.87/kWh from 93 ngwee/kWh for the residential segment. ZESCO also proposed to exterminate the monthly fixed charge and will roll these into the increased tariffs in question.
Mundende confirmed that ZESCOs operational costs have ballooned to K13 billion in 2018 from K3 billion in 2011. The power utility will raise an estimated K16 billion in the first year of implementation which will help improve operations.
However these retail tariffs have been dubbed as inflationary by analysts that forecast a deterioration in livelihoods of the retail segment. There has been a public outcry for the ERB to reject these proposed tariffs.