The government of Mozambique has directed the national power utility EDM to cut electricity tariffs for this year as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Mozambique News Agency, two categories of electricity consumers will see their electricity bills fall.
The report indicated that households who pay the “social tariff” will benefit from a 50% price cut.
These are households which only use a small amount of electricity, up to a maximum of 125kV. EDM says there are 2,964 of them.
The second, and much more significant, cut is a 10% reduction in the general tariff, which will benefit businesses.
Small and medium sized businesses will benefit from this reduction. These are EDM’s large consumers of low voltage power, and of medium voltage power up to 200kVA.
Speaking at a Maputo press conference on Wednesday, EDM spokesperson Luis Amado said a third measure is to allow businesses to defer payment of the fixed fee on their electricity bills.
In addition to paying the general tariff, which varies depending on the number of kilowatt-hours used, these businesses also pay a fixed fee.
Under the package announced by Amado, they can defer payment of the fixed fee for six months.
These measures are all intended to protect businesses and the poorest consumers from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Consumers on the social tariff “have been protected in all the electricity price rises of the last four years”, said Amado. “This is to allow continued expansion in the number of EDM’s clients as we move towards universal access”.
The low voltage clients on the general tariff, he said, are offices, workshops and other small businesses who have installed power of between 19.9 and 39.9kW.
Amado said that, taken together, these price cuts will deprive EDM of about $15 million.
