The Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara says that with the increase in the electricity tariff by 66%, power cuts will no longer be imposed from Thursday (16).
Speaking to reporters in Colombo, the Minister said the electricity tariff increase was a difficult decision to make, but it was one that had to be taken.
He further said that the Ceylon Electricity Board will start making direct purchases related to fuel and coal.
The Minister said that the Bank of Ceylon will be providing an additional loan of Rs. 22 Billion for coal procurement, while a request was made for an additional Rs. 50 Billion as a loan from People's Bank.
He said the loans will be used to make payments to the renewable energy suppliers, and for the fuel purchased from the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.
The Minister stressed that the new tariff hike was not proposed to cover the losses incurred by the CEB, but to cover the costs incurred to generate electricity.
The Ministry of Power and Energy said that power outages will not be imposed from Thursday (16), as the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka granted approval to the 66% electricity tariff hike.
According to the new electricity bill hike proposal:
The electricity tariff of Rs 360 paid for 30 electricity units so far can be increased to Rs 1,300. That's an increase of 261 percent.
This gives an opportunity to increase the electricity tariff of Rs. 680 for 60 units by Rs.1,880.
The existing electricity tariff of Rs.1,800 for 90 electricity units will increase to Rs.4430.
The existing electricity tariff of Rs. 3,900 for 120 units will increase by 74 percent.
According to this price revision, the electricity tariff has increased by a large amount in the range of 30 to 90 units used by most Sri Lankans.
Leave your comments
Login to post a comment
Post comment as a guest