The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) is to meet on 21 January to discuss the Ceylon Electricity Board's (CEB) latest proposal to revise electricity tariffs with effect from 1 February.

On 12 January, the CEB's Acting General Manager, engineer Dr. Narendra Silva had written to the PUCSL, seeking the latter's approval to reduce electricity tariffs by an average 3.34%, from 1 February.

Responding to a query by The Daily Morning as to whether the PUCSL had made any decision regarding the CEB's proposal, PUCSL Member Douglas Nanayakkara said that they had not yet discussed the proposal. 

“We will be meeting on 21 January to discuss it. Once it is discussed, the public consultation on the tariff revision will be held. The relevant notifications will be published on the PUCSL website on 21 January itself,” he said.

While the CEB has proposed to reduce electricity tariffs by an average 3.34%, the Electricity Consumers' Association (ECA) recently claimed that the CEB had received profits amounting to Rs. 65 billion last year (2023), but that they (CEB) had hidden the relevant data in the proposal which had been referred to the PUCSL. For instance, they claimed, the CEB's transmission and distribution cost last year was Rs. 70 billion, but that the latest proposal mentions that the said cost will be Rs. 145 billion for this year (2024). 

However, the ECA charged that the CEB had not mentioned the actual data related to the profit that they earned last year. The ECA General Secretary Sanjeewa Dhammika further opined that the relevant tariff revision proposal would not bring about any significant relief to the electricity users. According to the proposal, he said, the tariff of those using 31-60 electricity units will go down by only Rs. 1, 31-60 units by Rs. 2.50, 61-90 units by Rs. 03, and 91-120 and 120-180 units by Rs. 02, respectively, but that there is a possibility of reducing electricity tariffs by about 30% due to CEB's high profit status and increased hydropower generation.