BUSINESS NEWS - Efforts by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Tebeila Institute of Leadership, Education, Governance and Training to prevent the implementation of the 18.65% increase in Eskom’s revenue granted by energy regulator Nersa will cause irreparable harm to the economy, according to the utility’s CFO Calib Cassim.
In an affidavit filed last week, Cassim calls the urgent applications, which may be heard together early in March, “simplistic and myopic”.
A search of the latter term shows it to mean ‘short-sighted’ or ‘blind as a bat’, among other definitions.
The two parties launched their applications shortly after Nersa announced on 12 January that it has granted Eskom revenue totalling R319 billion in 2023/24 and R352 billion in the following year.
This translates to increases of 18.65% and 12.74% in the amounts the utility is entitled to recover from electricity tariffs in those years.
Pressure
This came against the backdrop of intense and continuous load shedding that is costing the economy dearly, as businesses and households spend large amounts to supplement the power supply from Eskom or suffer heavy financial losses.
Consumers are at the same time suffering the impact of increasing interest rates, very low economic growth and rising prices of especially food products.
Nersa’s announcement led to a public outcry about rising electricity costs while supply is ever deteriorating.
The two applications were filed even before Nersa published the reasons for its decision last week.
