Higher Tariffs Coming As Eskom Gets Go-ahead To Claw Back R69Bn From Customers

The high court has given Eskom the go-ahead to claw back R69 billion over the next three years from customers in the form of higher electricity tariffs.

Higher tariffs will pile more pressure on cash-strapped households and businesses buckling under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic but they’ll be a relief for the state utility, which is gripped in financial crisis and has long said that the regulator had treated it unfairly.

Eskom was disputing a decision by energy regulator Nersa to deduct the R69 billion equity injection given to it by government in its allowable revenue method.

Government made the equity injection to help the struggling utility service its high debt.

In the judgment, the judge ruled that Nersa “got it horribly wrong” and acted unlawfully by including the equity injection in its calculation of Eskom’s allowable revenue for 2019 to 2022.

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