Following the increase in electricity tariff, the Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission has confirmed that public consultations were not held after Energy Fiji Limited made their revised submission in March this year as it was initially rejected in February last year.
This comes as the Fiji Labour Party raised concerns about the lack of public consultations.
While responding to questions by fijivillage News, FCCC CEO Senikavika Jiuta says consultations were conducted with more than 1,700 participants in 2023.
Jiuta, during a press conference, says EFL submitted a proposal in August, 2023 with a new variable and fixed cost component including staggered increases which would have seen an increase in current tariffs increased by an average of 31.7 percent.
Jiuta says they had said no based on their initial assessment in February 2024 as vulnerable consumers were not being adequately shielded and renewable targets were not being met.
She says the assessment in 2023 involved nationwide face-to-face consultations, which raised concerns about data quality, heavy reliance on borrowing, weak commitments to renewable energy and inadequate protection for low-income households.
The CEO says the FCCC received a revised submission from EFL on 31st of March this year which included an updated five-year capital and operational expenditure plan addressing the Commission's earlier concerns.
INSERT: FCCC CEO on tariff
Jiuta stresses after rigorously assessing Fiji’s actual consumption trends, cost of service principles and Fiji's national renewable energy objectives, FCCC did not approve the proposed 37 percent increase and instead allowed an increase of 24.2 percent in the revenue requirement.
When further questioned on why consultations were not conducted on the EFL’s revised submission, the CEO says they had taken that into consideration but EFL had submitted the same numbers as in 2013, except this submission they had changed the capital expenditure plan.
While also responding to FLP’s concerns about not publishing details of increase in tariffs for business consumers, Jiuta referred to her announcement during her press conference where she confirmed that tier one commercial users of up to 1,000 units will see the rate move from 40 cents to 43 cents.
For tier two users of 1,001 to 5,000 units will see a move from 40 cents to 50 cents while tier three users between 5,001 to 10,000 units will move from 40 cents to 57 cents and tier four users of more than 10,001 units will see a move from 40 cents to 63 cents.
Meanwhile, in a letter to FCCC, FLP Leader Mahendra Chaudhry says details of increases to be applied to business consumers must be published for their information, and their submissions considered.
He says FCCC claims that the tariff increases were decided following extensive consultations country-wide but this is not supported by businesses they have consulted.
Chaudhry says be that as it may, they submit that FCCC has not followed the normal procedure of first publicising the proposed tariff increase for public information and submission.
He says in keeping with the past practice, a decision should only be made on an application after public submissions have been considered.
The FLP leader says it is, in their view, wrong for FCCC to consider the announced increases as an extension of EFL’s 2023 application which had been rejected.
Chaudhry adds EFL should be required to make a fresh application which should then be dealt with in a public consultation.
