PUCSL Chairman challenges recent electricity tariff hike

By Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama  

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL)  Chairman Janaka Ratnayake yesterday filed a Fundamental Rights (FR)  application challenging the electricity tariff hike.  

While issuing a statement, he said the application is both in  his capacity as an electricity consumer and in the public interest,  especially in the interest of those falling within the lowest brackets of units consumed, who are the hardest hit by the tariff hike.  The basis of the challenge is twofold.  

He mentioned in his statement that he challenged the  process by which the PUCSL has purportedly approved the tariff hike  proposed by the CEB contrary to established legal procedures. 

 
The approval of the PUCSL is a necessary requirement for a  change in tariffs, and Ratnayake said that there was no such lawful  approval of the Commission given to the proposal.  

He also claims that the purported approval given by the  Commission is an unlawful decision of three of the Members and not a  decision of the Commission.  

The second basis of the challenge is that the PUCSL is  duty-bound to ensure that the interests of all citizens are met when  approving a change in tariffs. A tariff that disproportionately affects  those within lower usage brackets would put those at the lowest income  levels at risk of  ‘de-electrification,’ making even the limited units of  electricity consumed by them for basic necessities inaccessible, the  statement said.  

Ratnayake explains in his petition that the most  economically generated hydropower-based electricity alone (approximately  4,400 GWh) would be more than sufficient to service all domestic  consumers within the 0-30, 31-60 and 61-90 bands, with a significant  portion of such electricity remaining for distribution among other  categories.  

Thus, it is unreasonable that consumers within these  brackets are made to pay the price of electricity generated at a much  higher cost.       

• The approval of the PUCSL is a necessary requirement for a  change in tariffs, and Ratnayake said that there was no such lawful  approval of the Commission given to the proposal