WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-04-05 Time: 06:00:16 Posted By: News Poster
By Brigitte Weidlich
A MASSIVE electricity hike of up to 35 per cent or more could hit Namibians if they do not object and stop it by the latest Tuesday next week.
The astronomical hike was announced by the Electricity Control Board (ECB) through an advert placed in a local newspaper yesterday.
The ECB said Namibia’s power utility, NamPower, had proposed a staggering 35,16 per cent tariff increase.
NamPower said the money would boost its finances as it wanted to complete several projects.
The Namibian has it on good authority that ECB has already started informing local authorities that they would face a 35,16 per cent increase.
If unopposed, the increase will come into effect on July 1 this year.
The ECB has given local authorities and consumers until Tuesday (April 6) to comment on the increase.
The staggering increase will push up the cost of living for low-income households considerably and there is no guarantee that bulk users like municipalities and regional electricity distributors (REDs) will not add their inflationary increase.
Should NamPower’s request be granted, this could push up Namibia’s inflation rate well over 7 per cent. The current inflation rate is 6,3 per cent. Electricity prices account for 3,11 per cent of Namibia’s inflation basket.
Last year NamPower requested an 18 per cent increase, but was only granted a 15 per cent increase.
Two years ago the price of bulk electricity went up by 18,06 per cent.
Should the ECB grant the full increase of 35,16 per cent as requested by NamPower, this would be ten per cent higher than what South African power utility Eskom was granted last month.
Eskom also wanted a 35 per cent increase, but spread over three years until 2010. However the national energy regulator of South Africa (Nersa) only granted an increase of 24,8 per cent for 2010-11, 25,8 per cent for 2011-12 and an increase of 25,4 per cent in 2012-13.
In an advertisement placed in a local daily yesterday, the ECB said that the combined increase NamPower wanted would push up the average electricity price from the current 56.28 cents per kilowatt hour to 76.07 cents per kw/h, resulting in an increase of 35.16 per cent by July 1.
Like Eskom, which has a gigantic R385 billion construction and expansion plan, NamPower told the ECB it had a N$15 billion plan for new power projects and that it needed to reach cost reflectivity on its electricity prices as per a Cabinet decision made a few years ago.
“NamPower’s strong standpoint is that any lag in reaching cost reflectivity will cause an ever more increasing challenge to reach this goal in future, since the gap will remain or [even] increase to the detriment of the power utility and in the end to the country,” the ECB said in the advertisement.
It is expected that the ECB will not grant the full increase demanded by NamPower, but it might be more than the moderate 15 per cent granted last year.
“The accumulated impact of electricity prices will be severe on the economy and inflation. It has the potential to delay the recovery from recession in both the South African and Namibian economies,” local economist Brian van Rensburg of Investment House Namibia (IHN), told The Namibian earlier this year.
The ECB has invited all electricity consumers, including the public, electricity transmission licence holders and large power users, to send comments on this envisaged price hike, either via e-mail to [email protected] na or via fax to 061-374304/05. Comments can also be delivered at the ECB’s physical address at No 8 Bismarck Street. All comments must reach the ECB by 10h00 on Tuesday, April 6.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 31 March 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201004050139.html?viewall=1