Prices of bread and all industrial products will be up
THURSDAY, 18 APRIL 2013
All Ceylon Bakery Owners’ Association said yesterday that there was a ‘huge possibility’ of an increase in the prices of all bakery products due to the increase in electricity tariffs.
The chairman of the Association N.K. Jayawardena has told media that the bakers would have no alternative but to increase the prices of bread and other products or to reduce their weight when the cost of electricity goes up.
He had said the escalation of the electricity prices will affect the entire bakery industry pointing out prices of bakery products had to be increased when gas prices and diesel prices went up and now the prices will have to be increased in another round when new electricity tariffs come into effect.
Meanwhile, the Ceylon National Chamber of Industries (CNCI) states prices of all industrial products could go up in price as a result of the electricity tariff hike. The Batticloa District Chamber of Commerce CEO K. Kugadas said even the price of rice could go up as mill owners would be compelled to increase their charges to maintain their profit margins.He said the case would be the same with dairy products as the machinery used in this industry also ran on electricity.
UNP deplores unjust electricity tariff hike on low income households
April 17, 2013, 9:57 pm
The latest electricity tariff hike was a heartless move and it would hit the low income households hard with medium to long term negative development consequences, the UNP said yesterday.
While it was true that the CEB losses must be reduced to ease the pressure on the Treasury and slow down the massive buildup of debt to maintain macro stability, the way in which it should have been done was certainly not to burden the low income households who were anyway struggling to consume even what they did now and the tariff hike would certainly increase and deepen electricity poverty in Sri Lanka, UNP parliamentarian Harsha de Silva said in a statement.
Dr. de Silva said: "It is saddening to note that the spineless PUCSL had met the President and compromised its independence in agreeing to increase the tariffs by over 50 percent on households considered ‘electricity poor’, that is those who use less than 48 units per month, while increasing the tariff by a mere one percent on the super rich who consume more than 900 units.
De Silva said that the UNP noted with serious concern that the avenues for corruption in generating, transmitting and distributing electricity have not been addressed by the PUCSL as there were no requirements to bring transparency into the costs of the CEB. "Neither has the PUCSL addressed the issue of procurement of coal by a private company that was outside the remit of the regulator. It has not addressed the issue of renegotiating heat rates in some generating units, particularly Kerawalapitiya either.
"All this means that corruption will continue to flourish at the CEB. The only positive requirement was to set up a software based merit order dispatch scheme to check on petty corruption at the CEB on a daily basis. The PUCSL has let the public down and in reflection the time spent by the hundreds of people’s representatives, consumer groups, engineers and civil society organizations in participating in the public consultations was a total waste."
