By Levison Lester

Lilongwe 2 September, Mana: The Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority has agreed to raise the electricity tariffs to 50.8 percent effective today, 1 September 2023.

Speaking in Lilongwe during a press briefing on Friday, Chief Executive Officer for MERA, Henry Kachaje said the adjustment has been made following the proposal which Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) submitted some months ago.

Kachaje said the adjustment of electricity tariff will be done in phases for four years.

"Based on total revenue requirement calculations  for tariff period at 1.72 trillion tackled with estimation for energy that will be billed to end user customers at 9.9 billion units, the average end user tariff fees of k157.50 per killowatt hour"

"At the current average tariff of k104.46 per killowatt hour,  this has been translated into average tariff increase of 50.8%" he said.

Kachaje further said the adjustment is justifiable saying it will improve high quality service delivery to ESCOM customers.

"The authority believes that granting this tariff adjustment will enable the power sector to realize enough revenues for investment, system maintainance, operations and other appropriate costs to sustain provision of services to customers”, Kachaje said.

Meanwhile, MERA has urged all licensees in ESCOM to open an operationalised individual operating accounts within the first three months of this new tariff base.