COLOMBO (News 1st); The Ministry of Power and Energy said that power outages will not be imposed from Thursday (16), as the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka granted approval to the 66% electricity tariff hike.

A source from the Ministry of Power and Energy speaking to News 1st said that a decision will be reached in the future with regard to those who are unable to settle their electricity bills.

The Public Utilities Commission has approved a 66 percent hike in electricity tariffs with effect from Wednesday (15).

It was with the agreement of the three members of the PUCSL except the Chairman of the Commission Janaka Ratnayake

In order to generate an additional income of Rs. 287 billion for the Ceylon Electricity Board, the proposal to increase the electricity tariff by 66 percent which was approved by the cabinet was forwarded to the Public Utilities Commission on January 2nd.

The proposal was not approved by the Public Utilities Commission and several members of the commission resigned due to conflict of opinion on the proposal.

Three new members were appointed for the vacant positions on two occasions and on Tuesday (14) the proposal was taken up again under the chairmanship of Janaka Ratnayake.

A 36 percent increase in electricity tariff was proposed to generate an income of 142 billion rupees based on the suggestions of public consultation and all other parties, but only Chairman Janatha Ratnayake agreed to the proposal.

The other members of the commission namely Attorney Chaturika Wijesinghe, Douglas Nanayakkara and SG Senaratne had rejected the proposal.

According to the new electricity bill hike proposal:

The electricity tariff of Rs 360 paid for 30 electricity units so far can be increased to Rs 1,300. That’s an increase of 261 percent.

This gives an opportunity to increase the electricity tariff of Rs. 680 for 60 units by Rs.1,880.

The existing electricity tariff of Rs.1,800 for 90 electricity units will increase to Rs.4430.

The existing electricity tariff of Rs. 3,900 for 120 units will increase by 74 percent.

According to this price revision, the electricity tariff has increased by a large amount in the range of 30 to 90 units used by most Sri Lankans.