The Energy Regulation Board (ERB) has confirmed that state power utility ZESCO has applied to increase its electricity tariffs by an average of 75 percent.
The proposed agreement is with effect from May 1st 2017.
In its application, ZESCO wants to increase tariffs in two phases starting with 50 percent on 1st May and a further 25 percent in September 2017.
This was confirmed by ERB Director of Consumer and Public Affairs Agnes Phiri.
“Following the ZESCO application, the ERB will now proceed to consider the application tariff increase in line with the provisions of the Law that governs electricity tariff determination, particularly as specified in the Electricity Act, Chapter 435 of the Laws of Zambia, as amended by Act No. 21 of 2003 (the Electricity Act),” Mrs Phiri said.
She said the ERB shall, therefore, be receiving written submissions from the public in view of the ZESCO application within the next 30 days as stipulated by Law.
“Further, the ERB shall convene a public hearing to consider submissions from members of the public, if at all any would have been received within the 30-day period,” she said.
“With regard to the mining tariffs, the ERB shall as it has always done, approve Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that have been agreed by ZESCO and its mining customers. The PPAs specify at what tariff individual mining customers buy electricity from ZESCO.”
Mrs Phiri stated that in August 2015, ZESCO had applied for tariff increase averaging 187 percent for all customer categories except the mines, which was granted by the ERB effective December 2015.
“However, following consultations with key stakeholders, in January 2016 ZESCO suspended the implementation of the tariff awarded by ERB. The withdrawal of the ‘new’ tariffs was based on the need to allow for a smooth transition from the old tariffs to new ones,” she said.
She added that ZESCO notified the public that it would reapply for a tariff increase once consultations had been concluded.
“Therefore, the new application comes after conclusion of that consultation process,” she said.
Some turn up the volume,!!! Dununa dununa aye aye dununa aye dununa ku mbuyo.
THIS IS ONE OF THE WORLD BANK’S CONDITIONS. IT WILL TRIGGER OFF PRICES INCREASES OF ALL GOODS AND SERVICES. MOST OF THE MONEY THAT ZESCO RAISES GOES TO PAY PARTY CADRES FOR FAKE ORDERS. THE PROBLEM WE HAVE IN THIS COUNTRY IS THAT ZAMBIANS DON’T LOVE THEMSELVES AND THEIR COUNTRY.
This is just propaganda by using ZESCO as the company making such proposals. It was already made up by cabinet with IMF. remember IMF and GRZ have concluded the conditions and rise of tariffs is one of them?
Aba bambi balimucibe aba bambi bola naikosa
And heft allowances and salaries for all Zesco senior officials must be revised downwards.
Bola naikosa….Bola naikosa….Dun…Good riddance.It should infact be 100% increase.
Everyone start using koloboi!
ZESCO wants to pass loadshedding costs to us. It is your ineficiency that caused loadshedding. Zambia has 30,000 electrical engineers why cant they solve our energy problems? The problem is you want God to come and solve our problems
All of Dora’s kick backs from those Turkish ships that were supplying off the coast of Mozambique.
?30,000 Electrical Engineers. Where? That is an hyperbole.
Were are the PF goons? The silence is deafening! LOL! MULIMUCHIBE!
Seems to me like Mutati signed a secret deal with IMF after all. They avoided a public acknowledgement due to opposition to IMF. No way no agreement wasn’t reach when these guys have already chewed the ukubosha money. Next increment will be fuel and mealie meal again. Brace yourselves.
The wage bill for zesco is too huge.Victor Mundende’s salary is able to pay a million people across the country.These people’s emoluments are just abnormal.Why pass the bill to us poor people?Loadshedding hours are still very irritating.
I am sure ZESCO and our PF Government will ensure the Tariffs are fairly banded to minimise impact on our vulnerable populations, small businesses and agriculture.
Large Businesses, Mines, Heavy Industries and Heavy Domestic Consumers should be on full commercial tariffs.
That is how to practice good leadership and issuer fair distribution of wealth.
Benefit should still go to the majority of our voters or our countrymen and women. Sense will prevail.
Are you a Chainama patient? The tariff comes into effect next week. The small businesses and everybody is getting hammered by 75% and you still wish for sense to prevail?
There will still nonetheless be an ultimate 75% increment and the person paying the price is the final consumer of the goods or services.
You cannot avoid this or sugar coat it to justify failure!
Price increase for electricity and wage free government workers = wage/salary reduction
for
Price increase for electricity and wage freeze for government workers = wage/salary reduction for government workers
Fi upnd read again.its not 75% by 1st May,2017 but 50% then 25% in September.But that aside,ERB must not allow this increament.75% is too much.let ERB consider 40% or 50% which ca be structured like 30% on 1st May and 10% or 20% on 1st Sept.2017.besides,this is not dununa reverse works but experts advised PF Govnt to do so to ensure that load shedding ends before 2020 because investors will now invest in power generation.MMD spent 20 yrs in power minus investing into power generation.to avoid load shedding in future, PF Govnt is thinking ahead-well done PF Govnt and IMF for your sound advice!!
Wanya chikanyo waidununa ma faka.
@Chingimbu, 50% immediate increase and you are celebrating because it is not 75%! If inflation rate is only 6%, which PFooolish expert will advise a 75% or 50% increase in one year?
You are still an *****! The increase of 75% will by the end of the year be 75%.
Ok, to take your obscured thinking, we spread the increment monthly till year end, the end result is still 75%
What electricity generation project has been started by PF? They are just completing what was started by MMD (Itezhitezhi, expansion of Kafue gorge, the Maamba pj). The problem is last years adjustments should not have been reversed completely by the President in the quest to win the elections because now we are talking about 75% instead of 40 or 50% if it was adjusted slightly last year. Turf life
Let mutati also look at how much is spent on administration, maintenance, new installations. ZESCO currently employees over 3000 workers who re getting more 25,000 kwacha per month as salary per person and on top of that every one drives a minimum of toyota hillux at the expense of a teacher with a degree from unza with a salary of 4000 kwacha per month
Can the pf chaps explain the video circulating of two pf cadres busy poking each other in the matak0. They are dressed in pf regalia. Am sure that is ndanje kikiki he has been posting about wanting gays to be recognised and his gay partner. Dirty chaaps
It was campain time for lungu that’s why you didn’t increase the tariffs.
From load sheding to increament of tariffs.
Careful, 50% and later 25% increase may end up to be higher than 75% depending on manipulation. Example: 50% of K100 is K50, new tariff K150. And then 25% of K150 being K37.50 and this added to K150 is K187.50 or an increase of 87.5% ZESCO may opt for this kind of calculation. Let us watch them.
It’s DON’T KUBEBA again.Only mathematicians will notice this and it is a psychometric test to the Nation.
I totally agree with you mk. The effective increase will be 87.5% on just electricity. The total increase when you factor in heightened electricity tarriffs in the cost of production of goods and services i.e mealie meal will be too catastrophic for most Zambians. I see poverty levels hitting beyond the skys due to failure to afford basic food, increased unemployment etc. Anyway with hindsight, I believe we are fulfilling the biblical scripture which states that, “where there is no vision, there is death.” We are paying the price for allowing mediocrity, complacency, banditry, religious extremism, uncouthness etc to take root. Zambia is indeed a mediocre country!
@njimbu can you please explain that by increasing tariffs by 75% will stop loadshedding by 2020.
All this will do is give ZESCO more income without generating and distributing electricity. Good trick. ZESCO will say..
Hey look how good our figures whilst the poor people growing chickens can no longer afford the electricity, if they do chickens more expensive, millers pay more, mealie costs more chicken/pig food costs more, cost of a room for a quickie will cost more, mosi b4 the quickie cost more. Can’t pipo see everything consumerable is linked to ELECTRICITY. WAKE UP ZAMBIA BEFORE WE ARE IN THE DARK AGES
There is nothing like attracting investors in the energy sector. If Zesco was prudent it could still make major strides at the current tariff rates. I was manning Zesco finance and I know the wastage that is there. There is serious wastage that even if New tarrifs were implemented, we would end up at the same spot
75% electricity tarriffs increase yet 5% or 0% salary increase. Insansa tashilelingana
A 75% tariff increase? When is 75% of Zambia’s population gonna have electricity?
Yes they should also increase people’s salaries by 75%
good point
The visionless one at it again. The warning bells were deafening but people were busy dancing dunununa reverse. Now it is time to go through hell. An increase of 75%, couple with the recent increment in water tariffs, next is fuel. The implication of these are too ghastly to contemplate. These morons found more that $3billion in the coffers in 2011, they have looted everything and now want to borrow another $1.3billion raising our debt to more than $10billion. This country is in reverse gear operating on auto pilot with a visionless driver at the helm. You will soon feel the true reality of allowing these mists to be in leadership.
How much do you pay for electricity in South Africa? Average household in Zambia pay $20 per month. Is this correct?
Zambia is not South Africa. That’s why Zambians are flocking to South Africa. Zambia is a hellhole. Electricity should really be free as a way of attracting talent to remain in Zambia!
Good business acumen. At last, we might investment in the power sector.
It is time the mines, industry and agriculture pay the correct tariff.
It will stimulate conservation measures across the board.
Well done Zesco
@Jaribo
“It is time the mines, industry and agriculture pay the correct tariff.” ???
What is “the CORRECT tariff” ?
PF cancellation of Kafue Gorge project that added on nearly a BILLION Dollars onto the cost? Or the delay in moving Batoka Gorge forward that has cost Zambia and Zim OVER 45 BILLION Dollars in economic losses as determined by the World Bank?
We are not paying for electricity. We are paying for Lungu and his PF theft, corruption and INCOMPETENCE!
And this is before you start paying the $10billion you borrowed. By the time you start paying back the eurobo those roads will be damaged eith no maintenance.
Its very correct that the increase in electricity tariffs will have an impact on all of us. But the fact is Electricity tariffs in Zambia are one of the cheapest in the SADC region(or even the cheapest). Our governments have been avoiding to increase the tariffs for political mileage. Zesco have been put under extreme pressure to manage their operations with minimal revenue due to low tariffs. Most of you on the blog are in foreign countries. How much do you pay electricity per month? The average house hold in Zambia pay about $20 per month on Electricity !! Its time we paid economical electricity tariffs in Zambia.
Your comment is irrelevant. Cost of living correlates to incomes also. How many Zambians earn $30 per month? Remember that 60% of Zambians live in abject poverty. That’s less than a dollar a day.
And how much does an average Zambian Earn per month?
Blackt Teeth Lungu….learn to comment without emotions. $30 is equivalent to about k300. Surely even maids get well over that. I assume you are learned and just refusing to reason due to political issues. We are not talking about those leaving in abject poverty but those who can afford electricity. The truth is we can not subsidize commodities like power as nation. We need sustainable tariffs period.
Elo Lwanya!
They have already effected the increament. who are they f00ling?
You have misread the full statement by Zesco. Have a look at it in yesterdays papers.
Instead of effecting the 187% in a single dose, it will be staggered over 2017 and 2018.
In 2017 a 75% increase will be effected made up of a 50% in May and a 25% in September.
Note that each proposed increase will then attract VAT at 16% and Government duty of 3%.
So on 1 May 2017 you will get 50% increment, plus vat and government duty. Therefore the increase inclusive of these taxes comes to 59,74%.
What has gone wrong with our Leaders if it is the salary increment they always go for the smallest percentages like 5% – 10% max. But whenever it comes from taking back from the poor mans salary in terms of TAX, VAT the minimum they go for is 17% and above why is it that despite blessed with minerals and good climate Zambia is still languishing in abject poverty.
The voiceless are left to suffer even more than they used to suffer in the last years of UNIP erra, despite the nation having enough to feed the nation, people can’t afford to get the necessities. 75% is just too big a figure to even hard of the already filled TAX bands the poor Zambian is facing.Imagine this:-
1. PAYE = 37.%
2. VAT = 16.5%
3. TOLL FEES = 10 – 20Kwacha
4. WATER = minimum K100/- per month
5…
I think the figure is a starting point but may land at 50%. Even that is too much done at once. Gradual increases in small amounts are more comfortable.
Increasing by 75% to pay for incompetence at Zesco. When did this company ever produce their books of accounts like the PL and the BS in the tabloids? I have never come across one from this conduit of corruption. It would make sense if this was a profit making company seeking to expand their business, but this monopoly has nothing home to write about apart from corruption and being used as a machinery for siphoning state funds. It does not matter whether the average pay is $20 after all we produce and sell electricity. Why should you compare a country like SA whose GDP is 20 times that of Zambia? We should manage our resources prudently lower the costs of goods and services.
Why such huge increments? I thought the increments are guided by inflation. One lesson here, we must strive and work so hard to reduce dependence on IMF. Remember the more you depend on others the less you depend on yourself. This is the case here, we will continue dancing to their tune(IMF).
THE APPLICATION IS REJECTED WITH UTMOST VEHEMENCE
Teddy Muso, the IMF is not an issue here it is ZESCO.
By the way IMF is a lender of last resort… you go to them when you are broke
Its even worse the fixed charge is increasing by the same amount… How broke js zambia that our government has to find ways of getting revenue. How many pipo will go without power now this is sad
I have said this before and I will say it again… Zambia is very poor at forecasting, they should have forecasted that the raise in population and investors will lead in more demand for goods and services. Most of the infrastructure we have was built by Kaunda, while these other presidents are busy globe trotting and enriching themselves.
The 75% tariff increase is unjustified if it’s meant to cover operating costs because it does not spar growth.
Lets stop using Zesco has a cash cow!
Zesco is a PF cash cow.
PF need money and they will bleed the zambians dry at any place to pay for their incompetence.
If PF cared more about citizens welfare then the cash they milk from zesco, they would have made sure most citizens are using solar energy by now.
And the lie that the cost raise is to attract investors does not hold water when you have PF cancelling opposition rallies siting unstable security climate in the country. Which investors will want to invest in a security risk. ??
Dununa Dununa iyee aayee Dununa iyee Dununa reverse… ababambi balimuchibe … bola naikosa x2
i say i clean up .. i say i pukuta .
Small businesses will have no chance of surviving this increase and therefore job losses are bound.
Taxes, regulations, bureaucracy, fees, all desperate situation
What will be the backlash from charcoal on the environment.
Zambia has been failed by so called learned people. Please read before commenting. And learn to comment on issues you understand!
#lets save zambia, and you are saying what?