By Kakooza Ashiraf
The Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) has announced a-one-percent reduction in electricity tariffs for 2022 that is aimed at reducing electricity bills significantly for industries and domestic cooking.
The new tariff structure, indicates that the homeowners using electricity for cooking will pay Shs 412 per kilowatt-hour (unit) starting January 2022.
This will also target the reduction of the bills for institutions that use firewood and other biofuels for cooking as well as for large industries.
Currently, the domestic user pays a single tariff of Shs 250 for the first 15 units under the lifeline tariff and thereafter Sh.5 for the rest of the units, which is also the most expensive of all the consumer categories.
Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu, the Minister for Energy and Mineral Development said the changes are in line with the aspirations of the National Development Plan (III) and Sustainable Development Goal Number 7 that “calls for “affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” by 2030.
She said this is aimed at promoting accelerated access to clean energy for improved welfare of society for social economic transformation.
“In a bid to improve the competitiveness of Uganda’s manufacturing sector, the government will effective January 2022 pilot the supply of electricity to industrial parks at five (5.0) United States Cents per kilo Watt-hour,” she said.
The piloting project will commence at two industrial parks including; Lao Shen in Kapeka and MMP Industrial Park in Buikwe district.
During the piloting period, the minister said that the consumption of electricity in the two industrial parks is expected to increase to help offset the revenue shortfall that would result from supplying electricity at 5 US cents per kilo watt-hour.
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