SRI Lanka’s heavily loss-making state-run electricity monopoly asked for a shocking price rise of more than 800% for its poorest customers with the bankrupt nation out of fuel, said regulators today.

The South Asian nation is hammered by a foreign exchange crisis, leaving it woefully short of dollars for imports, including fuel to generate electricity and for transport.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) lost 65 billion rupees (RM795 million) in the first quarter and sought an 835% price hike for the heavily subsided smallest power consumers, said the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL).

Anyone using less than 30 kilowatts a month currently pays a flat 54.27 rupees, which the CEB seeks to raise to 507.65 rupees.

“A majority of the domestic consumers will not be able to afford this type of steep increase,” said PUCSL chairman Janaka Ratnayake.

“Hence, we proposed a direct subsidy from the Treasury to keep the increase to less than half of what they have asked.”

Domestic rates have yet to be decided, but prices will go up by 43% to 61% for commercial and industrial users, he said.

The CEB will be allowed to charge users who earn foreign exchange, such as exporters, in dollars, he added, to help the generator finance imports of oil and spare parts.

The government imposed 13-hour power cuts a few months ago, but blackouts have been reduced to about four hours a day as rains filled hydropower reservoirs.

It already increased diesel prices nearly fourfold and petrol by more than two-and-a-half times over the past six months.

Sri Lanka remains virtually without diesel and petrol. The energy minister said he is unable to say when fresh stocks will arrive in the country, which does not have its own oil.

Kanchana Wijesekera yesterday apologised to motorists, and said two ministers are travelling to Moscow to secure cheaper Russian oil.

Wijesekera himself travelled to Qatar to negotiate concessionary terms for hydrocarbon imports.

Meanwhile, a delegation from the United States Treasury and State Department opened talks with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, said his office.

“The US has agreed to provide technical assistance for fiscal management in Sri Lanka,” said the prime minister’s office in a brief statement.

Unable to repay its US$51 billion (RM224 billion) foreign debt, the government declared it is defaulting in April and negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for a possible bailout. – AFP, June 27, 2022.