Industry strongly rejects BPC tariff request
Laone Choeunyane - Opelo Rakereng | Monday February 16, 2026 09:12
At the hearing, miners led the charge, with a Debswana representative saying the proposed tariff came on the back of yet another increase in electricity costs.
“The electricity tariff for mining companies was increased by approximately 50% in July 2025,” said Lefoko Sethoko, asset management head of engineering at Debswana. “With the proposed additional 40% increase for the 2026 year, the cost of electricity for the high power-intensive mining industry will have nearly doubled within a short period.”
He added that the mining industry continues to subsidise domestic tariffs as the baseload of the gross income from electricity usage is generated from the mining industry.
“This is exemplified by the 24% tariff increase of 2025 on domestic users versus the 50% of the mining industry,” he said.
The Debswana representative cautioned that approving the increment would represent an unprecedented cost escalation for high consumption users such as miners.
“This would further tighten margins and potentially undermine long-term capital planning, more especially now when Debswana is in a survival mode due to suppressed global diamond markets,” he added.
Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority Manager of Strategy and Products, Edward Mmusi, equally pushed back against the proposed tariff hike.
“Mobile Network Operators and national communications infrastructure providers are amongst the largest commercial consumers of electricity in Botswana, owing to the energy-intensive nature of communications network operations, data centres, transmission sites, and nationwide connectivity infrastructure,” he said, noting that their annual electricity expenditure runs into tens of millions of pula.
He cautioned that the increase would undermine the country’s digital transformation goals.
Consumer Watchdog co-founder Richard Harriman said consumers do not want to see yet another increase, citing a poll run on his highly popular Facebook group. The Consumer Watchdog has just under 260,000 members and represents the country’s main consumer rights group.
“One percent of people responded saying yes to a tariff increase, two percent said yes conditionally, and 97% of people were against it,” Harriman said, suggesting instead that consumers should be incentivised to conserve electricity through reward programmes.
At the BERA hearing, only Jindal Energy supported the increase.
“We acknowledge the financial challenges that BPC is facing,” said Jindal Country Director Neeraj Saxena in supporting the BPC’s need to achieve financial sustainability.
Jindal is under contract with the BPC for the construction of up to 600MW of coal-fired electricity on the Mmamabula coalfields.
The BPC in December asked BERA for an average 46% increase in tariffs from April 2026, with the adjustment for households proposed for 68%. According to documents filed by the Corporation with the regulator, the BPC is seeking a 68% tariff increase for domestic consumers, 41% for government and 40% each for commercial users and mining operations.
The power utility cited recurring financial losses due to non-cost reflective tariffs, unreliable local generation and heavy reliance on imported power, as well as escalating input costs, including fuel, maintenance and financing expenses, as reasons for the proposed hike.
By law, BERA has been receiving written comments on the request, and after the public hearing, will make a recommendation to the Minister of Minerals and Energy.