Malawi electricity price up by 13.7 %: Kapito brands hike as ‘stupid’
Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) has announced that power prices have been raised by 13.7 percent from the current average of K35.69 to K40.59 per kilowatt-hour with effect from November 1.
Malawians are expected to dig deeper into their pockets following the hiking up of electricity tariffs with Consumer rights activist John Kapito accusing the state-owned Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi
(Escom) of failing to improve the service delivery and that the hike is “wrong”.
Kapito has faulted Mera for succumbing to Escom’s proposal and branded the decision as “stupid.”
He said consumers should not pay for inefficiencies at Escom.
Kapito wondered why Mera chose to endorse the increment at a time the country is experiencing
the intermittent and prolonged blackouts.
”I regard Mera as stupid for failing to consider the consumer. Malawians are already paying high tariffs and yet are not getting the service they paying for,” argued Kapito.
Kapito said it was surprising that Mera approved the increment when Escom has failed to meet the set Key Performance Indicators (KIPs).
”It seems Mera is colluding with Escom to rip off poor Malawians instead of focusing on protecting the interest of consumers by ensuring that Escom improves its services first before calling for tariff increase”.
He added: ”There is no clear justification as to why we should have tariff increment now when has Escom failed improve the quality of services since the first tariff increase”.
Addressing a news conference in Lilongwe, Mera board chairperson Dingiswayo Jere said it approved Escom’s request to implement a second tranche of 18.39 percent after considering the performance of the service provider.
According to law, electricity tariffs are reviewed every four years and since Mera Board was elected in 2008 there has been two electricity base tariff reviews.
The first base tariff increase was for years 2009 to 2013 while the second one is being implemented in phases during the years 2014 to 2017.
The energy regulator said it has reviewed the impact of the movements in the macroeconomic fundamentals of exchange rate and inflation before effecting the hike.
Jere that that the 13.7 percent electricity tariff increase is part of the 18.39 percent increase which the energy sector regulator approved with effect from 1 July, 2015 “ intended to catalyse a financially health and self-sustaining electricity sector that is capable of generating sufficient revenue and credit worthiness for Escom at fair and reasonable tariffs to end users.”
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Malawi has become a country of economic measury for its citizens. 0f all the countries in he sadeck region, Malawi is the only country where every thing is expensive. The government has not put anything in place to cushon the odinary citizens Instead, costs of running parastatals like escom are passed on to the citizens who are alread strugling on meager salaries. We will be told the tarrifs we are charged are the lowest in the sadec region. This is not true Malawians are travelling to many sadeck countries and we see that Malawi has the highest rates in every… Read more »
as I am talking now we are in blackout 3am shutting down why sabotage to DPP government CSO please organise a demo to Escom now now
Koma nzake pp iwalani. JB kulalata too much. Ma wailesi apumako.
What does ESCOM do with the money they earn? It is the only monopoly supplying electricity in this country – why is it failing to improve the services? No competitors – yet the company’s books are in shambles! Where does the money go?
After waiting and asking for connection for over 20 years, I gave up asking ESCOM to supply electricity to my house. The technicians wanted me to pay bribes to do the job and yet I had paid for the survey, electric poles and related charges. This is deplorable. ESCOM is one of the most corrupt organizations I have come across! By the way, ESCOM could adopt a graduated connection fee structure (instead of corruption). Very urgent connections (within 3 days) could be charged more than those that can be connected within 1 week; then a lower fee for 2-3 weeks… Read more »
stupid zedi
The govt wants to score a political point, just wait malawians, when u’ve cried and cried enough, mr president will just say mera dont effect de raise…n u’ll hear d japies, the bamusi’s saying w@ a listening president.
Not good at all
ESCOM is busy making money for APM campaign in 2019. I have a message for them. God’s plan is not theirs. God will intervene.
You are planning to assassinate me when I return after killing millions of Malawians by imposing economic hardship. God will punish you. Once I return, you will see PP will transform Nyasaland, the land of misfortunes
By now all the houses should have been fitted with prepaid meters to prevent you ruthless sticky meter readers from disconnecting innocent consumers for no reasons. No customer care at ESCOM. No reliable electricity supply. Why the hike? You take Malawian for fools to fill you corrupt big bellies. Stupid MERA and ESCOM.