Charge for electricity levy in US dollars: MDC Veep tells Zimbabwe govt
Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - The vice president of Zimbabwe’s largest opposition party, MDC, Tendai Biti, Monday called on the government to levy and collect electricity tariffs in US dollars to guarantee permanent power imports.
Due to last year’s drought, electricity generation in Zimbabwe has been staggered as the country is mostly hydropower dependent.
This forced the government to regularly import between 400 and 600 megawatts (MW) of power.
“Secondly @ZetdcOfficial (Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company) must levy & collect charges in US$ to guarantee permanent imports. If this is done, it’s only fair & logical that energy consumers must also levy their labor, services and goods in US$. Thirdly there must be a scientific and systematic push to green energy,” Biti, in a series of tweets on micro-blogging website, Twitter, said.
“The power situation can be resolved immediately by any decent caring and competent government.”
Already, exporting companies are paying for electricity in foreign currency but are still not accessing power.
For example, a top official at the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (CoMZ) who asked to remain anonymous told PANA that despite government having obligatory contracts in place with these companies, they are still not receiving adequate power supply.
The official said this was despite mining firms since September 2019 paying for power tariffs in US dollars. CoMZ is the largest mining body in Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, for ordinary individuals, due to the Zimbabwe dollar being the sole legal tender, most do not have access to US dollars, making it hard for them to pay in the latter currency.
Currently, Zimbabwe has the capacity to generate 1,800MW with an installed capacity of about 2,200MW. However, the country is producing about 600MW on average daily.
Last year’s drought reduced the water levels across all Zimbabwe’s major dams, affecting the largest power producing one called the Kariba Dam which accounts for 37 percent of nationwide power generation.
Zimbabwe has therefore been importing power from South Africa, Mozambique and the Southern African Power Pool which is a regional market where electricity can be purchased.
But foreign currency shortages have made this endeavour difficult.
“There must be resolution of the country sovereign debt crises to enable access to cheap funds held particularly at the World Bank and African Development Bank,” Biti said.
The idea of dealing with Zimbabwe’s external debt of US$8 billion would unlock fresh lines of credit that would go toward the importation of power and unlock fresh capital expenditure to fund renewable energy projects.
“Genuine and bona fide independent power producers (IPP) must be licensed, including players in alternative energy, particularly solar, methane gas, and bio energy,” he said.
Government is currently working to alleviate power supply constraints through the rehabilitation and expansion of the Hwange Thermal Power Station, the country's second source of power.
It has also budgeted ZWL$8.4 billion (US$482.75 million) towards the rehabilitation of small thermal power stations.
Government is also supporting alternative sources of energy such as solar power projects through various fiscal incentives relating to importation of equipment and respective accessories and has lined up 20 IPP solar projects for implementation.
-0- PANA TZ/RA 13Jan2020
