Mozambique Energy: Consumers contest new price of electricity

“Power is the blood of development, and blood has a price… That’s the only way we can afford to invest,” said the CEO of Electricidade de Moçambique (EdM). The energy tariff was aggravated and EdM says that increase is aimed at meeting the company’s production needs.

Domestic consumers now pay 6.95 meticais (0.115 US cents) per kilowatt hour, against the previous 5.14 meticals (0.85 cents of the dollar).

Adjusting the power price to the production costs is the justification presented by the EdM CEO, Mateus Magala: “Power is the blood of development, and blood has a price… That’s the only way we can afford to invest,” Magala said.

However, consumers say that this readjustment will affect their monthly bills.

“We were used to a certain price and now comes a new one and leaves us always unbalanced,” said one consumer. Another consumer said that “now everything has changed, it will be difficult for me”.

For the economist Eurico Manhiça, the greater impact of this adjustment, besides eroding the purchasing power of the citizen, will be felt in the long term in the industrial sector.

“On goods and services it is very difficult to measure the impact that this may have, but the impact will be on the industrial sector, which uses energy as its main source of production,” said Manhiça.

IMF praise EdM decision

This adjustment follows the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund, which has already praised the decision of the Mozambican authorities noting that the measure preserves the social tariff and low-income consumers.(source: VOA)