The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives has joined calls made by the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources for energy providers and regulators to reverse a decision of hiking electricity tariffs.
The natural resources committee of parliament made the order earlier this week after the country’s power supplier ESCOM to reverse the recent adjustment of power tariffs by 10% and apologize to Malawians for the same.
This followed a blame game that ensued between power provider ESCOM and regulator MERA on who legalized the proposal to raise electricity tariffs in March.
Recently, MERA announced the approval of the adjustment of electricity tariffs owing to the recent rise in the cost of living in the country.
The development forced the natural resources committee of parliament to summon, MERA, ESCOM and EGENCO to appreciate on why they tariff adjustment was effected without parliament’s blessings.
Responding to the query MERA’s Acting Chief Executive officer indicated that they approved the tariffs and advised ESCOM to wait for an approval from parliament.
But Acting Chief Executive Officer for ESCOM Clement Kanyang’wa has since apologized for the decision to raise the power tariffs.
Meanwhile, Sylvester Namiwa , Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives – CDEDI Director has asked MERA to discipline ESCOM over the matter describing it as embarrassing.
The grouping also wants ESCOM to reverse the illegal tariffs and workout a mechanism to ensure that the consumers have been paid back what was overcharged.
