Announcing the average 30 percent increase in power tariffs in Gaborone last week, the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, Ponatshego Kedikilwe, said the BPC has been registering operating losses for the past four years and there is need for the Corporation to sustain its operations.
The minister said that although the 30 percent increase effective May 1, will go a long way in trying to raise financial resources for the struggling power utility, Government will still need to inject some cash into the Corporation. " A lower tariffs adjustment requires a proportionate cash injection from the government, a move which is, in the long term, not sustainable to the national balance sheet especially that a deficit budget is forecast for the next couple of years. Accordingly, a 30 percent adjustment was arrived at after agonising on the difficult choices," said Kedikilwe. The minister added that, in coming up with the new tariff levels, they also considered factors such as the social impacts, attraction of investors, recovery from recession and sustenance of the BPC operations. According to the minister, for customers in the domestic consumer category using less than 200kWh per month; whose current electricity bill is less than P100, the tariff increase will be 15 percent. As for those using more than 200kWh per month, the increase will be 30 percent.
