Stakeholders Praise ZESCO Price Freeze for Ordinary Citizens

Stakeholders have welcomed a new emergency tariff adjustment by ZESCO, which would see small-scale electricity users and families on low incomes pay the same amount for electricity but charge businesses and other big power users more for the energy they consume.

Speaking at ZESCO’s emergency tariff application hearing in Lusaka today the president of the Zambian Association of Manufacturers Ashu Sagar said that increasing funding to the utility would improve its ability to provide a regular and reliable supply of electricity.

Under the new tariff proposals, ZESCO customers who purchase less than 200 units of electricity (which includes the majority of ordinary Zambian citizens) would see their bills remain unchanged.

Meanwhile, customers who purchase more than 200 units would see their bills increase by up to 256%. Corporations which use over 500 units of electricity would be charged K6.35 per kilowatt hour.

By staggering the cost of electricity in this way, ZESCO can shield lower-earning Zambians from the higher cost of electricity while still ensuring it can afford to import power from neighbouring countries and make vital improvements to the power grid during the ongoing drought.  

Hotel and mall tycoon Mark O’Donnell, a member of the Business Coalition Task Force, expressed further support for the new tariff, which he said was a smaller increase than is being implemented in many southern African nations.

“As a business coalition task force, we are 100 percent in support of ZESCO’s emergency tariff adjustment application, this move will increase power generation which in turn will foster productivity in all areas of the economy,” he said.

Likewise Africa Greenco group founder Ana Hajduka said the tariff adjustment application by ZESCO will enable to company to stand on its own feet.

The Energy Regulation Board (ERB) will now consider the revised tariff adjustment and is due to make a decision on Thursday.