Dear Sir
The information as published in the New Era dated 9 January 2008 on “Electricity Tariffs to remain unchanged” is not correct. It creates the wrong impression and misinforms the electricity consumers that there will be no electricity increase in 2008.

Due to the fact that under normal circumstances NamPower applies to the ECB for a tariff adjustment to be implemented on 1 July of every year, the increases as announced by the South African Energy Regulator and the Zambian Electricity Regulator would not have an immediate effect on Namibia’s electricity tariffs.
However, the increases in the countries from where Namibia imports electricity will have a direct bearing on the costs of NamPower and will have to be taken into account in the next tariff review. Currently, the ECB has a price path which it follows to reach cost reflectivity for bulk electricity tariffs by the year 2010/2011 as decided by Cabinet in 2005.
Namibian consumers will therefore experience price increases over the next few years. Furthermore it should be noted that the Electricity Control Board Management only advised to the ECB Board on tariff adjustments and that the ultimate decisions lies with the ECB Board.
Helene Vosloo
Manager: Economic Regulation
Electricity Control Board