Botswana Power raises tariffs by 10% in effort to recover costs
Gaborone — The Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) said on Thursday that it had increased electricity tariffs by 10% as the loss-making utility tries to recover costs. BPC has made operating losses for years due to high import costs, non-performing assets and operational inefficiencies. This has made the company reliant on government subsidies to stay afloat, but it is now slashing costs as part of a turnaround plan. The 10% adjustment will apply to all consumer categories and was effective from April 1. "Government has approved a combination of an adjustment to existing tariffs, and a subsidy cash injection to BPC," the power utility said. BPC said it received a subsidy of 800-million pula ($83m) for the 2018 financial year, down from about 3-billion pula in subsidies in the past two years. BPC slashed its operational losses by 83% in the year ended January 31 2018, to 200-million pula, after cutting imports and overhead costs, and helped by another tariff adjustment in April 2017, BP...
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